Kinza stamped herself as the filly to beat in the Santa Anita Oaks on Saturday, traveling gate to wire to win Saturday’s $100,000 Grade III Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita for trainer Bob Baffert.
Whether the daughter of Carpe Diem is a serious contender for the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3 is another matter, but the winner showed enough Saturday to vault her atop the other 3-year-old fillies on the local circuit.
Given a characteristically strong ride by Juan Hernandez, even-money favorite Kinza passed her first test around two turns with flying colors, easily holding off 6-5 second choice Kopion by two lengths. She’s a Tempest, a 16-1 longshot, finished another 1½ lengths behind in third.
Kinza, who broke her maiden by 7½ lengths at Santa Anita on Dec. 29, carved out fractions of 22.99, 46.91 and 1:10.82 en route to a time of 1:37.03 for the mile run over a fast main track.
“This filly, she has a lot of talent,” Hernandez said. “She broke on top. Last time she showed a lot of speed. Today it was a faster pace, but she handled it pretty good. I felt like I was putting in a really good pace. My feeling was that she was really comfortable in front. I never asked her to go that fast. She was doing it all on her own.”
The only question was whether Kinza could successfully navigate two turns, but longtime Baffert assistant Jimmy Barnes didn’t see that as a problem going in.
“She acts like a filly that can handle (two turns),” Barnes said. “You don’t know until you do it, but she had shown in the morning in her workouts that she could go further. I was more concerned there was so much speed, with a small field and a lot of speed.”
Kopion, ridden by Flavien Prat, went into the race off a maiden victory by 3¾ lengths at Del Mar on Nov. 26 and a 5¾-length win in the Grade III Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 7. The Omaha Beach filly also was making her two-turn debut.
Kinza and Kopion may duel again in the…
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