In her first start since winning the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) in late March, Five G will try to secure the first grade 1 win of her career when she closes out her 3-year-old season in the $300,000 La Brea Stakes Dec. 28 at Santa Anita Park.
The 7-furlong test for 3-year-old fillies provides a prime opportunity as Five G is the lone graded stakes winner among the 11 runners entered.
A homebred for Gatsas Stables, Five G will try to secure her third stakes win of the season Sunday at Santa Anita. The daughter of Vekoma earned a maiden win at 2 going 1 1/16 miles at Aqueduct and this year opened her 3-year-old campaign with a 9-length romp in the Cash Run Stakes on Jan. 1 at Gulfstream Park.
Trained by George Weaver, Five G followed with a runner-up finish to Quietside in the Honeybee Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park before her front-running score by 2 1/4 lengths in the Gulfstream Park Oaks. One day before the Kentucky Oaks (G1), Weaver scratched Five G from that planned start because she had gone off form.
New York-bred Five G will try the seven-furlong distance for the first time in her career Sunday but she did impress in the Cash Run at the one-turn mile at Gulfstream. Five G returned to serious training with a half-mile breeze in :48.45 in late October on the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga Race Course, earning the bullet among 49 workers. She followed with four moves at Palm Beach Downs and, for good measure, worked 4 furlongs on the Santa Anita surface Dec. 19.
Five G is scheduled to start from Post 3 Sunday, with a pair of graded stakes-placed runners inside her in Simply Joking at the rail and So There She Was in Post 2. While Five G finished second to Quietside in February, Simply Joking finished as a runner-up to that filly when three-quarters of a length back in the Fantasy Stakes (G2) in March. Trained by Michael McCarthy, Simply Joking will enter off a previous start in Southern California as the daughter of Practical Joke finished second in the Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Nov. 30 at Del Mar.
Trained by Doug O’Neill, So There She Was earned a grade 1-placing at 2 when third in the Del Mar Debutante Stakes. This year the daughter of Munnings added a runner-up finish in the Torrey Pines Stakes (G3) and a win in the Remington Park Oaks.
Owner/breeder Spendthrift Farm will look for a La Brea repeat as Magnificat is scheduled to make her stakes debut off of narrow victories in a maiden race going 6 furlongs at Santa Anita and a 6 1/2-furlong allowance race at Del Mar. Spendthrift captured last year’s La Brea with Kopion, who scored at 37-1 that day but proved no fluke as she followed with wins in the Santa Monica Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita and Derby City Distaff (G1) at Churchill Downs.
Like Kopion, Magnificat is trained by Richard Mandella and is a daughter of Omaha Beach .
Santa Anita Park, Sunday, December 28, 2025, Race 8Entries: La Brea S. presented by Don Julio (G1)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Simply Joking (PA) Kazushi Kimura 120 Michael W. McCarthy - 2 So There She Was (KY) Antonio Fresu 120 Doug F. O'Neill - 3 Five G (NY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 George Weaver - 4 Artisma (KY) Edwin A. Maldonado 120 Richard Baltas - 5 Usha (NY) Juan J. Hernandez 120 Bob Baffert - 6 Brilliantly (KY) Flavien Prat 120 Bob Baffert - 7 Schilflied (KY) Tyler Baze 120 Patrick Gallagher - 8 Her Laugh (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 120 Riley Mott - 9 Formula Rossa (KY) Mike E. Smith 120 Mark Glatt - 10 Magnificat (KY) Mirco Demuro 120 Richard E. Mandella - 11 Silent Law (KY) Joel Rosario 120 Bob Baffert -
