Composure Gets Better of Elloluv

Trainer Craig Dollase has seen enough. The next time he runs his stakes-winning filly, Elloluv, he hopes it’ll be in a race that excludes archrival Composure.

Elloluv beat Composure late last year in the Hollywood Starlet, but this year the results have swung the other way. Composure won by a neck in the Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 9; Saturday her margin over Elloluv was three-quarters of a length in the $300,000 Santa Anita Oaks.

Coming off the track, Dollase considered the future and said: “The Ashland [at Keeneland on April 5] is a possibility. I’d like to avoid [Composure] until the Kentucky Oaks.”

Composure, one of only five fillies nominated for the Triple Crown, continues undefeated this year, after second-place finishes in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Starlet ended her 2-year-old campaign. Her owners, Bob and Beverly Lewis, who bought Composure for $470,000 as a yearling, didn’t open the door for their filly to run in the Kentucky Derby on May 3, but they didn’t throw out the possibility, either. The way the divisions have been stacking up, the Kentucky Oaks, at Churchill Downs on May 2, could wind up the tougher race.

The undefeated Storm Flag Flying, who beat Composure in the Breeders’ Cup, has yet to make her 2003 debut, but in New Orleans, another unstopped filly, Lady Tak, moved forward with a surprisingly easy 3 1/2-length win in the $350,000 Fair Grounds Oaks. Lady Tak’s win, over Atlantic Ocean, prevented Bob Baffert, the trainer of Composure, from sweeping the Oaks races.

Jerry Bailey, making another weekend commute from Gulfstream Park, won three races on the Santa Anita card, including the Oaks. Bailey, who rode the Oaks winner You last year, became the first consecutive winner of the Oaks since Gary Stevens’ remarkable four in a row that started in 1987.

While Elloluv and Go For Glamour set slow fractions in the early going, Bailey waited to pounce with Composure, who was always within two lengths of the lead. Elloluv eventually overtook Go For Glamour, but Composure moved ahead at the top of the stretch and then withstood Elloluv and Pat Valenzuela.

“This wasn’t particularly my filly’s kind of race, having to come from off a very slow pace,” Bailey said. “But when [Elloluv] picked it up, my horse found another gear.”

Only three fillies have won the Kentucky Derby, none since Winning Colors in 1988. Baffert, who has won the Derby three times with colts, including War Emblem last year, finished fifth with a filly, Excellent Meeting, in 1999.

“[The Derby] is a tough challenge for a filly,” said Bailey, who has won the race twice with colts. “But if you get one that’s good enough, I have no problem with it. Bob doesn’t make many mistakes. If she runs in the Derby, it’ll be because he thinks she belongs.”

Composure ran 1 1/6 miles in 1:43 1/5, paying $2.80 for $2. Go For Glamour finished third in the five-horse field.

The Fair Grounds Oaks, billed as a battle between Lady Tak and Atlantic Ocean, turned into an easy win for Lady Tak when she overtook Rebridled Dreams in high stretch and outdistanced Atlantic Ocean to the wire.

Lady Tak has won all five of her starts, no rival coming any closer than 2 3/4 lengths at the end. Ridden by Donnie Meche for trainer Steve Asmussen, Lady Tak completed 1 1/16 miles in 1:44 1/5 and paid $4.20. A three-race win streak ended for Atlantic Ocean, the second betting choice. She finished 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Belle Of Perintown, with Rebridled Dreams fourth.

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Ocean Terrace, a $700,000 yearling, made his stakes debut and remained undefeated with a 1 1/2-length win over favored Ministers Wild Cat in the $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields.

Ocean Terrace, trained by Bob Hess Jr. and ridden by Mike Smith, ran his two previous races at Santa Anita, breaking his maiden in a dead heat for win with Southern Image and beating allowance competition last month.