Queen Maxima
Queen Maxima (Bucchero) validated odds of 1-5 in Saturday's GIII Monrovia Stakes down the hill at Santa Anita, winning for the fourth time in succession and for the fifth time in her eight career starts. Making her graded stakes debut following a facile success in the restricted Wishing Well Stakes over the flat six-furlong course on Feb. 22, the $40,000 OBS June graduate was last to load and first out of the gates and, having shown versatility in terms of running style, was allowed to make the running beneath leading...
Queen Maxima, featured earlier this week on these pages and last seen Jan. 23 registering a facile 3 1/2-length score versus allowance company on the downhill turf course here, put forth a similar display over a sixteenth shorter in her return to stakes competition in Saturday's Wishing Well Stakes at Santa Anita. Second last Sept. 28 in the Unzip Me Stakes to Toupie (Uncle Mo), who proved victorious in the GIII Las Cienegas Stakes Jan. 19, Queen Maxima, sent off at 3-10, drubbed her five foes after biding her time...
For about a decade and a half, Mike Pender punched well above his weight as a trainer on the ultra-competitive Southern California circuit, winning Grade I races with modestly bred and moderately priced runners like Ultimate Eagle (Mizzen Mast) and Jeranimo (Congaree), each acquired for $70,000 out of the breeze-up sales on behalf of his client B.J. Wright. About a year after saddling Lombo (Graydar) to an 8-1 upset in the 2018 GIII Robert B. Lewis Stakes, Pender switched gears and entered the bloodstock arena, but without the same level...
10th-Del Mar, $77,500, Msw, 8-10, 3yo/up, f/m, 5fT, :57.42, fm, 1 3/4 lengths. QUEEN MAXIMA (f, 3, Bucchero--Corfu Lady, by Corfu), off at a firming 5.70-1 while making a belated first trip to the races, overcame a couple of spots of adversity to post an extremely impressive victory in the Saturday finale at Del Mar. Drawn the fence, the $40,000 OBS June graduate bombed the start and was clearly last early before making some ground to be about midfield into the turn. Traveling strongly and full of run passing the...