By Alan Carasso
Valor Ladies LLC's Tuttipaesi (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}) was cross-entered for Saturday's New Orleans Ladies' S. on the Louisiana Derby undercard, but boarded a westbound plane earlier in the week and will go postward as arguably the horse to beat in the GII Santa Ana S. at Santa Anita.
A listed winner on the turf and second to Emollient (Empire Maker) in the GI Ashland S. at age three in 2013, the bay mare has been sparingly raced, posting a 3 1/4-length victory in the restricted Suffolk Distaff Turf S. last October before following up with a 1 1/4-length success in Gulfstream's South Beach S. Dec. 12, a race for which she earned a career-best 96 Beyer. She was forced to take the overland route when last seen in the GIII Marshua's River S. Jan. 9 and could not overcome the ground loss, checking in third behind the hard-knocking Sandiva (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}). Chris DeCarlo retains the ride.
Her Emmynency (Successful Appeal) is no stranger to Southern California, having finished a disappointing sixth in the GII San Clemente H. at Del Mar before just missing at odds of 14-1 in that track's GI Oaks the following month. Despite that top effort, she was dismissed at 19-1 in Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Oct. 10 and just managed to last over Miss Temple City (Temple City) after drifting in on that one in the final furlong. Since transferred from Mike Stidham to Kristin Mulhall, Her Emmynency has one run this term, a fourth in the one-mile GII Buena Vista S. Feb. 20, an effort upon which she can certainly build.
A case can be made that 'TDN Rising Star' Nashoba's Gold (Smart Strike) could make some noise in this smallish field. Winner of the GIII Providencia S. and GII Honeymoon S. at three, the Warren Williamson homebred has struggled since, with five straight losses while finishing no better than fifth in any of those events. She most recently returned from a November layoff to fill fifth spot in the Buena Vista, but was running on late and gets back out to the nine-furlong distance of her two graded-stakes wins here.
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