Mrs. Astor © Benoit Photo

Never worse than third since winning the 2024 edition of the Red Carpet Stakes, Mrs. Astor returned a month later in December to win the Grade III Robert J. Frankel stakes by a nose at Santa Anita. Trained by Jonathan Thomas, the five-year-old mare by Lookin At Lucky resurfaced after a two-month break in the Grade III Santa Ana Stakes going a mile and a quarter at Santa Anita. She got shuffled back to sit second to last, and put in a four-wide bid at the turn for home to finish second by two and a half lengths. She followed that performance by taking the Santa Barbara Stakes and the Possibly Perfect Stakes, both at Santa Anita, with Umberto Rispoli back in the irons. A homebred for George Strawbridge Jr.’s Augustin Stables, she is 20-6-5-4 overall and is looking to add her third graded stakes and fifth victory overall to her resume.

Public Assembly, a Phil D'Amato trainee who won the Grade III Royal Heroine Stakes at Santa Anita in April, will be joined in the field by stablemates Sun Of Hill and Musical Rhapsody. Public Assembly will have her regular rider Antonio Fresu as they try to improve on her record of 10-3-2-0 for Abbondanza Racing LLC, Medallion Racing and Lissa Ann McNulty.

Paradise Lake joins stakes company for the first time after winning her last outing going one and one eighth miles on turf at Santa Anita. Trained by Peter Eurton and owned by C R K Stables, Paradise Lake is a four-year-old filly by Uncle Mo and has a record of 9-3-1-3 with $156,000 in earnings. She will have Juan Hernandez aboard.

Field of 10 in Post-position order: Mahina, Tiago Pereira 121; Mrs. Astor, Umberto Rispoli 121; Hey Jessie, Mike Smith 118; Will Then, Hector I. Berrios 118; Public Assembly, Antonio Fresu 123; Paradise Lake, Juan Hernandez 121; Sun Of Hill, Kazushi Kimura 121; Cornelia Fort, Tyler Baze 121; Venganza, Mirco Demuro 121; Musical Rhapsody, Armando Ayuso 121.

First post Sunday for a nine-race card is at 12:30 PM. The Red Carpet Stakes goes as the seventh race with an approximate post time of 3:30 PM PT.