Light Won Up leads full field in Senorita Stakes at Santa Anita

Light Won Up is back at the track that made her look like more than a promising filly, and that is why the Senorita Stakes matters. Her 2 3/4-length win in the Sweet Life Stakes on Feb. 7 came over Santa Anita’s downhill turf course, the same quirky layout she will face again when she headlines the $100,000 Grade III event for 3-year-old fillies.

Saturday’s race, Card 9 at Santa Anita Park with a 5:07 p.m. PT post, will sort out which of these turf sprinters is ready to move from prospect to division player. The Senorita is run about six and one-half furlongs downhill, carries a $100,000 purse with $60,000 to the winner, and anchors the third leg of the All Turf Pick 3. Light Won Up will carry 124 pounds and goes in as the 8/5 morning-line favorite, a sign the market expects her to run back to her best Santa Anita form.

That expectation is built on more than one sharp effort. Light Won Up’s fourth in the Limestone Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland on April 10 showed she can hold her own in graded company, but this return to California looks cleaner on paper and more comfortable in practice. The question is not whether she has talent; it is whether the hillside can once again turn that talent into a statement win that launches her into the summer turf sprint conversation.

The opposition is real enough to make the race more than a tune-up. Mo’ Em Down, 5/2 on the morning line, comes off an allowance optional claiming victory over this same Santa Anita turf on April 4 and looks like the most obvious pace threat. Bella Lyra, a 9/2 shot making her first U.S. start, adds an international angle that could change the shape of the race if her European form carries over. Dreaming of Alys, last year’s Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, gives the field another filly with stakes credentials and a point to prove in her first start of 2026.

The rider lineup adds to the stakes feel, with Antonio Fresu on Light Won Up, plus Juan J. Hernandez, Hector Isaac Berrios, Mike E. Smith, Tiago Josue Pereira, Edwin A. Maldonado and Kyle Frey spread through the field. That kind of depth matters on this course, where placement and timing can matter as much as raw speed.

Jungle Peace’s wire-to-wire win in last year’s Senorita in 1:13.83 showed how unforgiving and rewarding the downhill turf can be. If Light Won Up handles it again, she will leave Santa Anita not just as the favorite in the race, but as one of the fillies shaping the division.