Unique Bella and jockey Mike Smith after winning the Santa Ynez Stakes (gr. II) at Santa Anita – © Benoit Photo
By Ed Golden, Santa Anita Publicity
Budding superstar Unique Bella worked five furlongs on Santa Anita’s fast main track Thursday in a bullet 58.20 under exercise rider Edgar Rodriguez for the Las Virgenes Stakes (gr. II) at one mile on February 5.
“It was a very good work,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said. “We usually don’t work them that fast, but she was doing it all on her own.”
Two-time Eclipse champion Songbird, meanwhile, arrived from Kentucky on Monday to prepare for her four-year-old campaign.
“She trained Tuesday, Wednesday and today, but she won’t be working (breezing) for at least a month,” Hollendorfer said of the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro owned by Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farm, who has not raced since absorbing her first loss after 11 straight facile triumphs, to Beholder by a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita Nov. 4.
The 58.20 clocking, also recorded by the Richard Baltas-trained Lunar Empress, was the fastest of 86 drills at the distance, the average time of which was 1:01.24.
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