By Brian DiDonato
A few hours before the winner of the 2016 Eclipse Award for champion female sprinter is announced at Gulfstream Saturday, Finest City (City Zip), the favorite to take home the hardware, will get her 5-year-old season underway across the country at Santa Anita. The Seltzer Thoroughbreds colorbearer will break from the rail–assuming she doesn't scratch due to wet weather–as the likely chalk in the GII Santa Monica S. over the same track and trip she upset the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint last out Nov. 5. The chestnut was second by a head here 12 months ago, before later annexing April's GII Great Lady M S. at Los Alamitos; finishing a reasonably close third behind Beholder (Henny Hughes) and Stellar Wind (Curlin) in the GI Vanity Mile H. here in June; and checking in second, beaten just a head, in the grassy GII John C. Mabee S. at Del Mar Sept. 4.
Kaleem Shah's Fantastic Style (Harlan's Holiday), denied of a Great Lady M title defense by Finest City, was third as the 1-5 chalk in Pimlico's Skipat S. May 20 and fifth at 1-2 behind Bad Ju Ju (Desert Code) in the Dec. 30 Kalookan Queen S. She'll be making her first start since being transferred from Bob Baffert to Doug O'Neill.
Bad Ju Ju, claimed from O'Neill by Peter Miller for Rockingham Ranch off a third-place effort while in for a $40,000 tag here Oct. 8, rides a three-race win streak into Saturday. She took a track-and-trip optional claimer on the day after Finest City's Breeders' Cup win, and added a victory at Del Mar 18 days later before her Kalookan Queen score.
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