Trainer Tom Proctor heads into the $100,000 Wilshire Handicap (gr. IIIT) April 27 on turf at Santa Anita Park with a pair of sharp recent allowance winners in Theatre Star and Premier Steps.
They are part of a field of seven fillies and mares signed on for Sunday's one-mile test, the eighth race on the program with a 4:30 p.m. PDT scheduled post. The race, although called a handicap, will be contested with equal assigned weight of 119 pounds.
Gary Stevens, who rode both horses to victory in their most recent starts, has opted for Glen Hill Farm's Theatre Star, a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred filly by War Front who had won three races in a row for trainer Dale Romans prior to shipping west to Proctor. Theatre Star pressed the pace for Stevens in a 1 1/8-mile allowance at Santa Anita before securing victory by three-quarters of a length April 4.
Theatre Star seeks her fifth consecutive win in what will be her initial stakes try. Her only defeat in five career starts came when sixth in her debut over a yielding turf course at Aqueduct Racetrack just over a year ago.
A winner of a second condition allowance at one mile on turf by a length March 9, Irish-bred Premier Steps was a minor stakes winner going one mile on turf at Gulfstream Park in 2013 when trained by Chad Brown. The 4-year-old filly was second in her Southern California debut for Proctor going 6 1/2 furlongs down Santa Anita's hillside turf course before using a stalking trip to break through last time out.
Owned by Swift Thoroughbreds, Vintage Thoroughbreds, Michael Kisber, and Bradley Thoroughbreds, Premier Steps has had 11 carer starts with a 3-2-1 record. She'll be ridden for the first time by Mike Smith.
Parranda makes her first start for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer in Southern California after posting a pair of stakes victories this winter on the Gulfstream Park turf for trainer Rodolfo Garcia and Lone Stable. Top rider Rafael Bejarano will be aboard the 5-year-old English Channel mare who won both the Sunshine Millions Filly & Mare Turf and the 1 1/18-mile Suwannee River (gr. IIIT) in recent months. In her last start, Parranda was a tiring sixth in Gulfstream's one-mile Honey Fox (gr. IIT) March 15.
With four stakes wins from eight overall victories in 21 starts, Parranda she has amassed earnings of $452,655. She is now owned by Gillian Campbell, Dan Clark, Hollendorfer, and Greg Skoda.
American Beauty Stakes winner Moone's My Name returns for John Sadler and Batchelor Family Trust off her one-length victory March 29. Michael House's Rhagori, an allowance winner in her United States debut for trainer Simon Callaghan, graded stakes-placed Journey On, and maiden winner Nickels Wild complete the field.
$100,000 Wilshire Handicap (gr. IIIT, Race 8, 4:30 p.m.), Fillies & Mares 3 & Up, 1 Mile (Turf)
PP. Horse, Jockey, Trainer
1. Moone's My Name (GB), V Espinoza, J W Sadler
2. Parranda (FL), R Bejarano, J Hollendorfer
3. Premier Steps (IRE), M E Smith, T F Proctor
4. Rhagori (GB), C S Nakatani, S Callaghan
5. Theatre Star (KY), G L Stevens, T F Proctor
6. Nickels Wild (KY), M Garcia, C B Greely
7. Journey On (CA), T Baze, D F O'Neill
All assigned 119 pounds.
Premier Steps won the 2013 Sweetest Chant Stakes.
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