Nafisa Seeks Redemption in Santa Maria Stakes at Santa Anita

Nafisa entered Santa Anita's Santa Maria Stakes as the kind of mare whose past still commanded attention even after recent results cooled. The Bob Baffert-trained 5-year-old had gone from winless in 12 starts to a three-race streak that included the La Canada Stakes on Jan. 24, a 4 3/4-length victory that led Baffert to say, “She wants to go long on dirt.” But the Beholder Mile pushed her back into uncertainty, with Simply Joking finishing fourth and Nafisa fifth behind stablemate Splendora.

The Santa Maria carried extra weight as Santa Anita Park's feature on a nine-race Sunday card that began at 1 p.m. PDT. The race drew only five starters, but the structure still mattered: a $100,000 purse, $60,000 to the winner and 124 pounds assigned. It also marked another step down the ladder, with the event cut from $200,000 and downgraded from Grade 2 to Grade 3 for 2026.

That setting made Nafisa a reputation-rebuild runner rather than a sure thing. Owned by Zedan Racing Stables and bought for $1.8 million as a Saratoga yearling, the Quality Road filly came in with 16 career starts, three wins, five seconds and four thirds for $245,820. Her 2026 line, 3-2-0-0, showed how productive she had been before the Beholder Mile, and the 1 1/16-mile trip fit the profile she had already established in both the La Canada and Santa Maria distances.

The stakes history at Santa Anita set a high standard even for a reduced Grade 3. Equibase lists the Santa Maria's fastest time since 1976 as 1:40.95, set by Exotic Wood in 1998, and its largest winning margin as nine lengths by Unique Bella in 2018. Pre-race wagering leaned only slightly toward Simply Joking over Nafisa, a sign that the rematch was viewed as competitive rather than settled.

For Nafisa, the race stood as a clean test of whether the La Canada marked a genuine return to form or only a bright spot before the Beholder Mile reset the conversation.