Sweet Azteca Goes for Third Great Lady M Stakes

Two multiple stakes winners out of Grand Slam mares are slated to meet each other for the first time in the July 4 Great Lady M Stakes (G2) at Los Alamitos Race Course. Sweet Azteca brings back-to-back Great Lady M wins into the $200,000 race, but hasn't run since August, while Grand Slam Smile is a three-time stakes winner so far this year. The late D. Wayne Lukas trained Grand Slam and Great Lady M., the latter the race's namesake and the dam of 1986 Horse of the Year Lady's Secret, also trained by Lukas. Grand Slam's progeny include So Sweetitiz, the dam of Sweet Azteca, and Royal Grand Slam, the dam of Grand Slam Smile. Sweet Azteca and Grand Slam Smile come from longtime California breeders, though Sweet Azteca was foaled in Kentucky. Pam Ziebarth bred and owns 6-year-old Sweet Azteca, whose third dam, Tizsweet, is a full sister to California-bred Tiznow, the only two-time winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). Ziebarth's late mother, Cecilia Straub Rubens, bred both Tiznow and Tizsweet. Sweet Azteca, trained by Richard Baltas in 2025-26 and Michael McCarthy prior to that, has won seven of her nine starts, including the 2024 and 2025 Great Lady M, the 2024 Beholder Mile Stakes (G1), and consecutive editions of the Rancho Bernardo Handicap (G3) in 2024-25. The Great Lady M and Rancho Bernardo are 6 1/2 furlongs, and her win margins in those four races have ranged from 1 1/2 to 7 lengths. Larry and Marianne Williams bred and own 5-year-old Grand Slam Smile, who could become a millionaire with a first, second, or third in the Great Lady M, and is a two-time Cal-bred champion. She was voted champion 2-year-old female in 2023 with two stakes victories that season and champion 3-year-old female in 2024, when she added three more stakes wins. Although she lost out in Cal-bred champion voting to Majestic Oops in 2025, Grand Slam Smile won three times and ran second twice in five starts that year, four of which were stakes. Steve Specht trained Grand Slam Smile through 2024, when he retired, and Sean McCarthy subsequently took over her conditioning. The 5-year-old mare began 2026 by capturing the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint Stakes and also proved victorious in the Irish O'Brien Stakes and Fran's Valentine Stakes. Trainer Richard Mandella, who won the Great Lady M twice when it was called the A Gleam Handicap and run at Hollywood Park, has entered Spendthrift Farm's Magnificat. A 4-year-old daughter of Mandella-trained Omaha Beach, Magnificat is coming off a victory in the 6-furlong Desert Stormer Stakes June 11 at Santa Anita Park. Bob Baffert has won the Great Lady M seven times, including with Marley's Freedom in 2018-19. He brings Zedan Racing Stables' Nooni to this year's running. The 4-year-old daughter of Win Win Win hasn't run since finishing fifth in the 2024 Starlet Stakes (G2) at Los Alamitos. But that year she captured the Sorrento Stakes (G3), ran second in the Oak Leaf Stakes (G2), and competed in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). Rounding out the field are three-time stakes winner A Thousand Miles, stakes winner Prancingthruparis, and allowance optional claiming winner A. Z. Wildcat.