The Grade 3, $100,000 Royal Heroine Stakes has drawn a deep field and competitive field of 13 older females ready to run one mile on the turf Saturday, April 26 at Santa Anita Park.

The 2024 Royal Heroine Stakes victress Uncorked enters the race off a fifth-place finish in the similar Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes. Tirupati won the Wilshire Stakes and had missed by a head in the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes in the prior race. Mucho Macho Girl recently won the Queen of the Green Handicap and is another in top form coming into the Royal Heroine. Sneaker was off for four months before a third-place effort last month in the shorter Irish O’Brien Stakes and could stretch out in distance and be even more competitive. Venganza also stretches out to two turns off a decent third-place effort in the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes presented by Don Juilo three weeks ago. Hamwood Flier is very likely to lead early in the race, having won the Swingtime Stakes at this distance in wire-to-wire fashion earlier in her career. She enters the race off a third-place effort in the off-turf Clocker’s Corner Stakes near the end of January. Recent allowance winners Public Assembly and Raw Ability step up in class following strong efforts on this turf course, with Sun Of Hill hoping to improve off a third-place finish in the allowance race won by Raw Ability. Valence won the Zia Park Oaks on dirt last November before a fourth-place effort in the Harry Henson Handicap, also on dirt. Eternal Reign finished second in two recent allowance races on turf. Baltic Fire and Lunar Impact draw the two outside posts in this mile race following fourth- and fifth-place efforts, respectively, in their most recent races.

Top Contenders:

Tirupati winning at Santa Anita. (BENOIT photo)

Tirupati should get a dream trip sitting in third position in the early stages behind Hamwood Flier, who is absolutely a need-the-lead type who will have to run very fast to get to the front and save ground from an outside post from the start, and Sneaker, who has been first or second after a half-mile in her last nine turf route races, Just off the pacesetters is where Tirupati likes to be, as when she was second in the early stages of the Buena Vista Stakes on March 1 when the leader ran the opening half mile in :45.37. Making up seven lengths over a quarter-mile, Tirupati made the lead with an eighth of a mile to go and was just beaten by a head at the finish line, earning a very strong 107 Equibase Speed Figure, which is the highest in the field aside from a 111 earned by Hamwood Flier in 2022. Tirupati followed up that effort with a wire-to-wire win in the Wilshire Stakes at this distance last month under jockey Umberto Rispoli, who was riding her for the first time. Rispoli has the mount again in this race. Since first trying the grass last summer, Tirupati has won three of seven races and finished worse than third just once, which came when entered in a Grade 1 race. In her current form and with the pace scenario in her favor, she could win her second graded stakes in a row.

Public Assembly winning at Kentucky Downs. (Coady Media)

Public Assembly was transferred to the barn of Phil D’Amato and returned to the races off a five-month layoff on March 30, when she won with a visually impressive rally from fourth to draw off late. She earned a career-best 100 speed figure for the effort, one she can easily improve in her second race off the layoff. The cutback from 1 ¼ miles to one mile should sharpen up her late kick. Entering the race with a five-furlong workout, which was the fastest of 51 timed workouts on the day at that distance, Public Assembly is sending all the right signals for an imminent “A” effort.

The aptly-named Raw Ability is undefeated in three races. She won in Ireland last June in a 14-horse field and was imported to the U.S. to join the barn of trainer John Sadler. After three months off, she won at Del Mar in September with an impressive rally from ninth in the stretch, running the last quarter-mile in a strong :22.57. After another six months off, Raw Ability returned on March 17 at Santa Anita and pressed the pace in the early stages through a snail-like :49.52 opening half-mile before running the last quarter mile in :22.37 to win the race. Her Equibase figures of 94, 94 and 90 in her three races to date are well short of the 100 recent figure Public Assembly earned last month and the 99 and 100 recent figures earned by Tirupati in her last two races, but considering how big of a late kick this filly has shown, it might not matter if the pace is hot and even the stalkers like Tirupati and Public Assembly are susceptible to being run down near the wire.

The rest of the field (with best representative Equibase Speed Figure): Baltic Fire (98), Eternal Reign (99), Hamwood Flier (106), Lunar Impact (105), Mucho Macho Girl (97), Sneaker (106), Sun of Hill (99), Uncorked (105), Valence (99) and Venganza (102).

Win Contenders:

Tirupati

Public Assembly

Raw Ability