Musical Rhapsody comes up big in Santa Barbara Stakes at Santa Anita

ARCADIA — Weighing in at 880 pounds, Musical Rhapsody is a tiny racehorse. Saturday at Santa Anita, this was an advantage.

It made it a little easier for jockey Mike Smith to thread the 5-year-old mare through a pack of rivals and rally from last in a field of seven to win the $100,000 Santa Barbara Stakes by the narrowest of margins.

“You can fit through smaller holes,” trainer Phil D’Amato said of the upside of having an undersized horse.

Musical Rhapsody took the 1 1/2-mile turf race by a head-bobbing nose over fellow Irish-bred Duvet Day and Juan Hernandez, and it was another 2 1/2 lengths back to third-place Vincero Grande and Diego Herrera.

Musical Rhapsody, who was the bettors’ favorite and paid $4, is the kind of mare who can be a rider’s and trainer’s favorite too.

“She’s not very big at all, but she’s tough and loves to run,” Smith said.

Four and a half lengths off the pace set by Illhaveanotherkiss and jockey Edwin Maldonado (who finished fifth) with a mile to go, Smith and Musical Rhapsody worked their way between rivals and into contention, angled out for a clear path turning into the homestretch, and dueled to the wire outside Duvet Day.

“I might have got her out a little too soon,” Smith admitted. “A quarter of a mile is a long way for her to be in front. She’ll run down anything, but you’ve got to time it right.”

Musical Rhapsody’s last-to-first score at the optional-claiming level last month was her first in six tries since owner Michael House bought the daughter of Holy Roman Empire in Ireland last year, and her win Saturday was her first at the stakes level in America.

“We’ve got her confidence going in the right direction,” D’Amato said.

D’Amato’s confidence is surging too during a successful stretch that includes stakes victories at Santa Anita on the past three weekends — and four of the past five weekends — and Santa Anita Derby winner Stronghold’s solid seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

“It was awesome,” D’Amato said of his first Kentucky Derby experience. “You compete in the Derby once, and you get that Derby itch to want to go back there every year. My horse, he ran respectable. It’s just that mile and a quarter is a little too far for him.

“I definitely need some more dirt(-track) horses and want to get back there next year.”

While Stronghold rests up for middle-distance 3-year-old stakes this summer, D’Amato is enjoying deploying his barn full of strong turf runners.

He’s looking to run Musical Rhapsody next in the $100,000 Possibly Perfect Stakes, for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles on turf, on Saturday, June 15, the final weekend of the Santa Anita spring season.

“There’s nothing like a win, (taking) a claimer to a stakes win,” the trainer said of the horse he calls a “nice little gritty filly.”

“She’s got two in a row, and hopefully she can keep rolling.”