The Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita - $150,000 (G2)

Las Vegas, NV -- The 61st running of the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes takes place this weekend - Sunday, January 15, 2012 at Santa Anita Park. The second $150,000 race of the weekend at Santa Anita Park features three-year-old fillies and covers 6 1/2 furlongs on Santa Anita's dirt track.

Horse betting action at Santa Anita this weekend with the Santa Ynez Stakes at OffTrackBetting.com

A field of six up-and-coming three year olds will take to the track on Sunday as the fourth race on Sunday's card. None of the talented field is immune to winning so it should be a great race to say the least! Included in the field are two former stakes winners, Made to Love Her and Candrea, and four others that either have the pedigree or the speed to contend in this event.

The Contenders:

Made to Love Her - Made to Love Her has been consistently good over the past year finishing no worse than third in all but one of six races - a fifth place finish in the Grade 3 Del Mar's Sorrento Stakes. Made to Love Her has won two straight races - one coming at this same track in late October and the other at the Moccasin at the $100,000 Hollywood Park Stakes. Rafael Bejarano will be aboard Made to Love Her as he has been in the last three starts.

Candrea - Candrea is a Bob Baffert trained filly that is the only other stakes winner in the field - the Phil D. Shepherd Stakes at Fairplex Park in September. She has also shown well at Santa Anita with a second by a half-length in Santa Anita's Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes in October. Candrea has not fared well since that time but hopes are that a return to dirt will turn her fortunes around. Regular rider Martin Garcia will be in the saddle on Sunday.

The Others:

Rowdy Gal - Rowdy Gal makes her first start on dirt on Sunday after success at Hollywood's synthetic track. Rowdy Gal has won two straight races for trainer John Sadler and has the speed to emerge as a surprise from the field on Sunday.

Painted Woman - Painted Woman has won two of four starts - both wins coming on synthetic tracks. Trainer Steve Asmussen has a knack of churning out quality entries and Painted Woman is no exception but with no real results on dirt, the prospect for a win is sketchy.

Lady Hokulea - Trainer Bob Baffert's second filly in the field is Lady Hokulea whose last outing was a last place finish in the Moccasin in a race that she was in up until the half way point. Baffert's horses are no joke as proven in the past however.

Reneesgotzip - tallied a front-running maiden score by 2 1/4 lengths in her only start Dec. 18 at Hollywood. She earned an incredible Beyer speed figure of 98 in that race and will once again be ridden by Corey Nakatani at the Santa Ynez Stakes.

Post time is 2:03 PM PST Sunday for what promises to be a fairly wide open Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita.