My Miss Aurelia, runner-up to Royal Delta in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic (gr. I) at Santa Anita Park, worked four furlongs in :48 3/5 on the Southern California facility's fast main track the morning of Dec. 20.
She is expected to head the field for the La Brea Stakes (gr. I), for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs, on opening day Dec. 26.
"She's doing great," said Scott Blasi, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen, in a release. "She's a good-feeling filly. She's not mean, very manageable, and self-reliant."
Blasi has a vested interest, of course, but feels My Miss Aurelia is a legitimate favorite to win the Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly of 2012. "She should get it," Blasi said. "She beat Questing twice (in the grade I Cotillion and in the Ladies' Classic)."
My Miss Aurelia, a bay daughter of Smart Strike owned by Stonestreet Stables and George Bolton and bred by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings, had won six straight races, three of them grade I events, before her first setback in the Ladies' Classic.
A lifetime earner of $2,386,000, My Miss Aurelia would be making her fourth start of the year in the La Brea. She has had four published workouts since the Breeders' Cup. Her latest was the 19th quickest of 51 at the distance.
Said private clocker Toby Turrell of My Miss Aurelia: "She could not be any more ready."
A day earlier, Spendthrift Farm's 3-year-old Distorted Humor colt Jimmy Creed worked seven furlongs on Santa Anita's fast main track in 1:24 4/5 in his final major drill for the Dec. 26 Malibu Stakes (gr. I).
"Brilliant" is how Turrell of the Winners Card termed the move by the chestnut colt. The workout was performed in company with stablemate Moulin de Mougin, who was clocked in 1:26 1/5.
"He went really nice," Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella said of Jimmy Creed, who will be seeking his first stakes victory in the seven-furlong Malibu, which offers $300,000 in purse money. "He went in company to keep it real."
Jimmy Creed was ninth in the Nov. 3 Xpressbet Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I). Prior to that, he was third, beaten three-quarters of a length in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (gr. I), and second by a neck in the El Cajon Stakes at Del Mar.
Other probables for the Malibu, which will be drawn Dec. 21 with the rest of the opening day races, are Drill , Fed Biz , Jimmy Creed , Midnight Transfer, Politicallycorrect, Private Zone, The Lumber Guy, and Unbridled's Note.
First post time opening day is at noon. Gates open at 10 a.m.