Miss Santa Ana on Display

Those who love maiden races will be in heaven today at Del Mar. Four of the eight races are for horses who have never won, three of them the ever-popular maiden claimers. The most interesting might be the first, which features the debut of Miss Santa Ana, a 3-year-old daughter of Memo. Owned by David and Holly Wilson and trained by Vladimir Cerin, Miss Santa Ana is out of the Tsunami Slew mare Rio Tejo, which makes her a half-brother to Rio Oro. A speedy sort who won the 1998 San Miguel Stakes as a 16-1 longshot at Santa Anita, Rio Oro won for the 11th time in 20 starts when beating $8,000 claimers Sunday at the Solano County Fair. The sixth race is for older $50,000 claimers and features several horses returning from long layoffs. Musafi, who won at Del Mar on Aug. 22, 1998, will be running for the first time since July 23, 1999. Shaka hasn’t run since Sept. 6. Boca Fast hasn’t run since Aug. 10. Go Bux has been away since July 9, 2000, and Always Game hasn’t seen action since Aug. 27.

Race of the day: The race with the most quality is the $70,000-added Fantastic Girl Stakes, which used to be run on opening day. The 5-2 co-favorites in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint are Kitty On The Track and Kalookan Queen. Idle for more than 18 months, Kitty On The Track was second to Go Go in the A Gleam Handicap on July 1 and will try to continue the hot streak of jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. and trainer Bill Spawr.

Who’s hot: Jockey Danny Sorenson in the fifth race. For the second time in the first five days of the meet, the veteran rider won the fifth, guiding 6-1 shot Futuristic to an unbelievable victory Sunday. The gelding, winless since 1999, overcame a horrible start to win going away. On Thursday, Sorenson took the fifth with 9-1 outsider Special Matter. His mount in today’s fifth is Leavenopapertrail.

Who’s not: Yours truly. Two out of the last three days we’ve had two out of three in the Pick Three, but that does not cut it.

Exotically speaking: An exacta box in the fifth race with Lively Liz, Leavenopapertrail and Foreverclear.