Saturday’s standout event among the nine races scheduled at Santa Anita is the Grade 3 La Ca\u00f1ada Stakes, featuring older mares competing over 1 1\/16 miles on the main track. Leading contenders include the 7-5 favorite Brilliantly and the 9-5 second favorite So There She Was. Both are set to participate in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes at seven furlongs on opening day, December 28, before stepping up in distance and class relief at La Ca\u00f1ada.<\/p>\n
Brilliantly, trained by Bob Baffert, impressively outpaced So There She Was in the La Brea, despite the latter\u2019s slow start. Though Brilliantly earned her first victory on turf over a mile last March, this will mark her first attempt at a dirt race beyond one turn. In contrast, So There She Was, under trainer Doug O’Neill, has demonstrated success on dirt, including a win at the Remington Park Oaks at 1 1\/16 miles last year, and a close runner-up finish in the 1-mile G3 Torrey Pines at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe returning to a two-turn race is positive for her. She\u2019s been training strongly and consistently shows up,\u201d noted O’Neill.<\/p>\n
During the Malibu Stakes, Brilliantly led early but faded in the stretch to place fourth, eight lengths behind her stablemate Usha. For La Ca\u00f1ada, the 4-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo will wear blinkers again for her first two-turn dirt race; she wore them in her initial starts, including her turf win.<\/p>\n
So There She Was had a slow beginning in the Malibu, gradually advancing through the backstretch and turn, but lost momentum late to finish sixth in a field of ten.<\/p>\n
So There She Was has managed to take the lead near the second turn in both previous races. O\u2019Neill anticipates a similar pattern from the filly this Saturday.<\/p>\n
“She\u2019s a big filly, so the start can be challenging, but with two turns, her usual break should give her a better position,” explained O’Neill.<\/p>\n
Emisael Jaramillo will pilot So There She Was for the first time at La Ca\u00f1ada, replacing Mirko DeMuro who rode her at Malibu.<\/p>\n
The La Ca\u00f1ada Stakes is scheduled as the eighth race at 4:04 p.m. PT, with post positions and jockey assignments as follows: Thiago Pereira on Ooty (8-1); Hector Berrios on The Fugitive (12-1); Emisael Jaramillo on So There She Was (9-5); Juan Hernandez, boasting 7 wins and 5 losses, on Amazing; Kazushi Kimura on Nafisa (5-1); and Abel Rescano aboard Jane Austen (6-1).<\/p>\n
This story originally appeared in the News section of the Paulick Report on January 23, 2026. Click here to set Paulick Report as your preferred news source.<\/em><\/p>\n Fan Take: This race highlights the intriguing competition between turf and dirt specialists stepping out of their comfort zones, making it a pivotal test for both horses and trainers. For horse racing enthusiasts, La Ca\u00f1ada offers a thrilling glimpse into how these mares adapt, potentially shaping future breeding and racing strategies at the highest levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saturday’s standout event among the nine races scheduled at Santa Anita is the Grade 3 La Ca\u00f1ada Stakes, featuring older mares competing over 1 1\/16 miles on the main track. Leading contenders include the 7-5 favorite Brilliantly and the 9-5 second favorite So There She Was. Both are set to participate in the Grade 1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2443],"tags":[2955],"class_list":{"0":"post-38527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fighting","8":"tag-horse-racing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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