Las Vegas, NV - The Grade 2 A Gleam Handicap A Gleam Handicap comes our way this Saturday, July 14 th
from Betfair Hollywood Park on the American Oaks Stakes undercard. Fillies and mares will be
featured as they go seven furlongs for their portion of the $200,000 purse.
The A Gleam has drawn a field of eight for this important race. The race serves as a "win
and you're in" for the Breeders' Cup in November - an automatic berth is on the line! It is race
9 on Hollywood Park's Saturday schedule with a post time of 5:10 PM. Here is a look at all eight
entries into this very important Grade 2 event.
Switch - is a former grade 1 winner but those two triumphs came back at the end
of 2011 and beginning of 2012 - she hasn't won in eight tries since. Switch's best result of
late came in November - a second in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint to end a 2011
campaign in which she finished no worse than third in seven starts - one win, four seconds
and two third place finishes all in graded stakes races. 2012 has seen Switch race to a fifth in
the Grade 1 Humana Distaff Stakes in May and most recently a fourth in the Desert Stormer on
this track June 17th. Switch may not be in the best form presently but she is certainly the most
decorated entry in the field.
Izzy Rules - won four straight races to end 2011 and begin 2012 - the best of which
came on April 14th when she raced to a win as 13-10 favorite in the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes
at Santa Anita. Izzy Rules followed up that streak with a pair of fifths - the Grade 3 Count Fleet
Handicap at Oaklawn and the Time to Leave Stakes. Most recently she was second in the Desert
Stormer Handicap here to Turbulent Decent June 17th.
Teddy's Promise - Teddy's Promise won the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on December
31st beating such standouts as Turbulent Decent and Sugarinthemorning. Trainer Dan Ellis has
Teddy's Promise has won four of her last six starts with pedestrian fifths in the Grade 1 Santa
Monica Stakes and Desert Stormer last time out among the six. She is definitely one to watch
on Saturday but definitely needs a bounce back after a brutal Desert Stormer.
Sugarinthemorning - finished second last time out in the Grade 1 Santa Monica
Stakes at Santa Anita on January 28th and before that finished second to Teddy's Promise in the
La Brea Stakes. Sugarinthemorning is a dual stakes winner and has five wins, four seconds and a third in 15 career starts.
American Lady - one of the Bob Baffert trained fillies is highly regarded but
somewhat lightly raced. She is coming off a win in the Reminiscing Stakes here on June 12 th to
follow a second in an Allowance Optional Claiming in her only other start this year. American
Lady started 2011 with two wins and a second place finish but ended with an eighth in the
Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga back in August of last year.
Glamorista - The other Bob Baffert entry Glamorista has won three of five career
starts but will be making her stakes debut on Saturday. She will have Chantal Sutherland on
board and she has been on quite a role!
Moonstruck Maya - four year old filly has yet to start a stakes race but comes into
the A Gleam having won two straight - an Allowance Optional Claiming last time out on this
track and a Claiming race in May on this track as well.
Mildly Offensive - raced to a fourth place finish in this race last year and has since
finished fourth in another pair of graded stakes races - the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap
and the Grade 1 Humana Distaff. In nine career starts, Mildly Offensive has three wins, a second
and a third place finish.
