When a young horse unleashes an effort like Paradise Woods did in the April 8 Santa Anita Oaks (G1), it’s easy to get carried away—even if you’re a seasoned, Hall of Fame trainer.

So when she followed her record-breaking, 11 3/4-length romp in the Santa Anita Oaks, the reality of the challenges the racing game can offer hit with force in the May 5 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1).

Off as the 6-5 favorite, Steven Sarkowsky and Martin and Pam Wygod’s Union Rags  filly sped to the lead in the Kentucky Oaks but was pressed from the start by Miss Sky Warrior, which led to absurd splits of :22.79 and :46.24 through a half-mile over a sloppy and sealed Churchill Downs main track.

After she blazed through six furlongs in 1:11.42 in the 1 1/8-mile test, her fate was sealed. She tired harshly in the stretch and finished 11th, 20 1/2 lengths behind winner Abel Tasman, who she had defeated so impressively in the Santa Anita Oaks a month earlier.

So what did trainer Richard Mandella take away from her trip to Kentucky?

“Humility,” the Hall of Fame conditioner said with a wry smile. “It was too much, too fast for her. From maiden to Santa Anita Oaks and then to Kentucky to face all that? I think it kinda got to her.”

After such a trying trip, Mandella gave Paradise Woods a needed rest, and her training up to the $100,000 Torrey Pines Stakes (G3) scheduled for Aug. 27 at Del Mar has allowed him to put her trip to the Bluegrass State behind him.

“I’d do it again, but I’ll probably never get it right in my life,” Mandella said of his winless streak in both the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1). “They should have a boycott on me for that weekend. I’ll just throw out the Kentucky Oaks, because I still think she’s very good.

“She might need a step or two to get going again, but I’d expect she’ll run very well. She was just learning then and everything caught up with her. It was a little too much.”

Although he considered running Paradise Woods in the Del Mar Oaks (G1T)—she’s a half sister to Forest Chatter, a stakes winner on grass who also won four other races on turf for Mandella—her trainer found a cozy spot in the one-mile Torrey Pines.

There isn’t another graded winner in the eight-horse field, and only one other has placed in a graded race—J K Racing Stable and Bruce Chandler’s Zapperkat, who finished third in the Chandelier Stakes (G1) in October of 2016 and won her most recent start, a mile main-track allowance at Santa Anita ParkMay 4 for trainer Richard Baltas.

Three others enter off wins, as well. Chocolate Coated won an Aug. 3 maiden special weight event by 4 1/4 lengths and Mistressofthenight (also trained by Baltas) won an optional-claiming allowance at Del Mar Aug. 9. Both of those wins were at the mile distance, while Bernina Star will stretch out from the 6 1/2 furlongs she was victorious at in a July 29 optional-claiming allowance at Del Mar.

The field is completed by the third entrant from the Baltas barn, Delitefull Lady, who finished fourth behind Bernina Star last time out, the Philip D’Amato-trained Helen Hillary (eighth in her last start), and former claimer Munny Spunt, who came in fourth in the Aug. 13 Rancho Bernardo Handicap (G3).

 

ENTRIES: TORREY PINES S. (G3)

 

Del Mar, Sunday, August 27, 2017, Race 6

• Grade III
• 1m
• Dirt 
• $100,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 4:40 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	Paradise Woods (KY)	Flavien Prat	124	Richard E. Mandella	-
2	Chocolate Coated (KY)	Gary L. Stevens	118	Neil French	-
3	Zapperkat (KY)	Norberto Arroyo, Jr.	120	Richard Baltas	-
4	Delitefull Lady (KY)	Corey S. Nakatani	118	Richard Baltas	-
5	Mistressofthenight (KY)	Rafael Bejarano	120	Richard Baltas	-
6	Helen Hillary (KY)	Joseph Talamo	118	Philip D’Amato	-
7	Bernina Star (KY)	Santiago Gonzalez	120	James M. Cassidy	-
8	Munny Spunt (FL)	Drayden Van Dyke	118	Doug F. O’Neill	-