Grade 2 winner Hawksmoor will try to kick in the grade 1 door after a number of placings at the top level when she faces an expected seven other fillies and mares in the $300,000 Gamely Stakes (G1T) May 26 on the Santa Anita Park turf.
Based at Fair Hill training center for trainer Arnaud Delacour, Lael Stables' Hawksmoor will be returning to Southern California, where she closed out 2017 with a runner-up finish in the Matriarch Stakes (G1T) Nov. 26 on the Del Mar turf. That followed her second-place finish in the First Lady Stakes (G1T) on the Keeneland turf.
In 2016 Hawksmoor finished a close third in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes Presented by Lane's End (G1T) after also earning a group 1 placing in France that season.
That's not to say Hawksmoor doesn't have her share of big wins. The daughter of Azamour won last year's New York Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G2T) and as a 3-year-old scored a victory in a German classic.
She will be making her second start as a 5-year-old after opening the season with a runner-up finish in the Dahlia Stakes on the Laurel Park turf.
While Hawksmoor returns to Southern California, champion trainer Chad Brown will send Uni to the Golden State for the first time. The daughter of More Than Ready won last year's Sands Point Stakes (G2T) on the Belmont Park inner turf and opened this season with a clear victory in the April 14 Plenty of Grade Stakes on the Aqueduct Racetrack inner turf.
Awaiting the shippers will be top local turf females like Beau Recall, who enters off a victory in the one-mile Royal Heroine Stakes (G2T) on the same course April 7. Trainer Simon Callaghan thinks Beau Recall won't mind the extra furlong of the Gamely.
"I think a mile and an eighth is fine for her," Callaghan said. "She was second in the (grade 1) Del Mar Oaks at that distance, beaten just a nose. She seems to always run her race, is very consistent, and I'm really happy with the way she's been training."
Beau Recall is not the only California-based daughter of Sir Prancealot in the field, as two-time grade 2 winner Madam Dancealot will try to secure her first grade 1 win. Madam Dancealot has placed in three grade 1 races.
Santa Anita Park, Saturday, May 26, 2018, Race 8Entries: Gamely S. (G1T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Madam Dancealot (IRE) Corey S. Nakatani 123 Richard Baltas 3/1 2 2Midnight Crossing (IRE) Brice Blanc 121 Richard Baltas 10/1 3 3Mopotism (KY) Mario Gutierrez 121 Doug F. O'Neill 10/1 4 4Sophie P (GB) Kent J. Desormeaux 121 James M. Cassidy 12/1 5 5Uni (GB) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 121 Chad C. Brown 3/1 6 6Beau Recall (IRE) Flavien Prat 121 Simon Callaghan 7/2 7 7Hawksmoor (IRE) Julien R. Leparoux 121 Arnaud Delacour 9/5 8 8Madame Stripes (ARG) Rafael Bejarano 121 Neil D. Drysdale 4/1
