Photo: Hollywood Park
Victor Espinoza, who won the 2006 Gamely Stakes on Shining
Energy, has taken a call to ride Canadian invader Miss Keller in the $250,000
Grade I race for fillies and mares at nine furlongs on the grass here Memorial
Day.
Miss Keller, a 5-year-old Irish-bred mare trained by Roger
Attfield at Woodbine, has won five of 19 starts and earned $633,453 for Three
Chimney Racing. She began her career in Ireland before joining the Attfield
stable in 2009. She won the Grade II Canadian Stakes and finished second in the
Group I E.P. Taylor Stakes on the Woodbine turf last autumn.
Miss Keller seeks to become the first shipper to win the
Gamely since Miss Josh scored for Barclay Tagg in 1991.
Miss Keller will face a strong local challenge headed by
Malibu Pier, winner of the Grade II Santa Barbara and Santa Ana handicaps on the Santa Anita turf
in her last two starts for trainer Carla Gaines.
Other probable starters include Buena Vista Handicap winner
Cozi Rosie (Mike Smith), the Simon Callaghan-trained duo of Wilshire Handicap
winner Dubawi Heights (Joel Rosario) and 2010 Beverly
Hills Handicap winner Turning Top (Garrett Gomez), 2010 Beverly D. Stakes
winner Éclair de Lune (Chantal Sutherland) and Restless Soul (Joe Talamo).
Madera Castana, Celtic Princess and Lilly Fa Pootz head a
list of possible starters. Lilly Fa Pootz worked six furlongs on turf in a
bullet 1:13.20 Sunday.