Casalu gets first stakes win. (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.—Casalu, who was Grade III-placed on both turf and dirt, earned a breakthrough victory Saturday at Santa Anita when taking down the $100,000 Blue Norther Stakes for 2-year-olds going a mile on turf.
In last month’s GIII Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar, also at a mile on turf, Casalu raced without blinkers for the first time and finished second behind Will Then. In the Blue Norther, Will Then was also entered back and was installed as the 5-2 favorite. But earlier Saturday, Will Then was scratched by trainer Jonathan Thomas.
With that rival out of the picture, Casalu (5-1)—refitted in blinkers by trainer Bob Baffert—rolled to a comfortable 1 ½ length win under Kazushi Kimura. It was Casalu’s first victory since her debut going five furlongs on dirt in July at Del Mar. In five subsequent starts prior to the Blue Norther, all stakes, the Caracaro filly was never worse than fourth. Those efforts included runner-up finishes in both the GIII Sorrento sprinting on dirt at Del Mar and GIII Surfer Girl going a mile on turf at Santa Anita.
Casalu raced on the outside with clear racing room throughout. He ranged up to challenge pacesetter Resolve (4-1) on the second turn, put that rival away in the stretch and had no problem holding off a late challenge from runner-up Schilflied.
“She is easy to ride, and she broke sharp from the gate,” Kimura said. “We just sat back in a nice position and waited until the top of the stretch. She responded really well.
Supa Speed, the 6-5 favorite ridden by Flavien Prat, rallied belatedly to finish third.
Casalu won in a final time of 1:34.63 after Resolve, with Frankie Dettori up, set solid fractions of 22.21, 45.77 and 1:10.56 for six furlongs.
Casalu paid $13, $6.80 and $4.20. Schilflied, ridden by Hector Berrios for trainer Patrick Gallagher, returned $8.20 and $4.80. Supa Speed, trained by John Sadler, paid $2.60.
Casalu is owned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman. She improved to 7- 2-2-1 with $174,546 in earnings.
“She’s getting better and better. Last time we put on the blinkers, and I felt like she had a greater performance with them on. Today we kept the blinkers, and she had a great performance again,” added Kimura.
Live racing at Santa Anita resumes Sunday with a nine-race card starting at 12 p.m PT.
