Om N Joy powers to Santa Margarita win, eyes Clement L. Hirsch

Om N Joy turned a fast, contested Santa Margarita Stakes into a launching pad, sweeping from last to win Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 dirt race at Santa Anita by 3 3/4 lengths and throwing the Southern California older filly-and-mare division into sharper focus. The California-bred mare ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.03 under Hall of Fame rider Kent Desormeaux, earning a 93 Beyer Speed Figure and a second graded stakes victory while improving her record to 17 starts with 6 wins, 5 seconds and 0 thirds, with $616,703 in earnings.

The way she got there mattered as much as the margin. Just seven days after finishing last in a turf stakes, Om N Joy moved to dirt and found a setup that fit perfectly when Simply Joking blasted through fractions of 45.37 and 1:09.30 under pressure from Seismic Beauty. That pace gave Desormeaux the kind of late target Om N Joy needed, and the filly finished with authority for trainer Aggie Ordonez and owners-breeders Jerry Baker and Connie Baker, with Michael Golovko and Terrence J. Scanlan also among the connections. Ordonez has said Om N Joy has the temperament to race twice in a week, and this result suggested the barn may have found a mare whose best race can arrive on the right surface at the right time.

The Santa Margarita also clarified just how open the division can be when the surface switchers are handled correctly. Seismic Beauty, the defending Santa Margarita winner, returned after her disappointing Breeders’ Cup Distaff effort at Del Mar, where she was the 6-5 favorite, bobbled at the start and finished 11th of 12 after winning last year’s Santa Margarita by five lengths. She was beaten into third here, but her presence still gives the division a proven Grade 1-level speed horse if she rebounds. Thought Process adds another layer. She won the Grade 1 Gamely on May 25 for her first Grade 1 and fourth graded stakes win overall, and her camp has kept the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf as the long-range target, making any dirt experiment a significant strategic shift.

That is what makes Om N Joy’s victory more than a single upset. It strengthens her case for the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 1, a $400,000 race at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares 3 and up that can send its winner to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Keeneland with an automatic, free berth into the Distaff on Oct. 31. A division that looked thin only a week ago now has pace, depth and a fresh pecking order, with the summer stakes picture at Del Mar suddenly looking a lot less predictable.