Brilliantly tabbed as favorite in Saturday’s Grade III La Canada Stakes
At 0h02, on January 23, 2026 • By Santa Anita Park
After testing the Grade I La Brea going seven furlongs on opening day of the Santa Anita Classic Meet, Brilliantly and So There She Was will get class relief and stretch out to 1 1/16 miles in Saturday’s Grade III, $100,000 La Canada Stakes for older fillies and mares at Santa Anita. On Sunday, 3-year-olds will meet led by stakes winners Hey Nay Nay and Later Than Planned in the $100,000 Baffle Stakes on the hillside turf course.
In the La Brea Dec. 28, Brilliantly raced in mid-pack down the backstretch, ranged up to the leaders on the turn with an outside move but then weakened in the stretch to finish fourth by 8 ¾ lengths behind winning stablemate Usha. Both are trained by Bob Baffert.
Brilliantly’s only time racing around two turns came on turf when breaking her maiden in her second start in March. Owned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, the 4-year-old filly by Uncle Mo is 4: 1-1-1 with $76,320 in earnings. Brilliantly will also be re-adding blinkers, which she wore for her first two starts. Jockey Juan Hernandez will ride.
First post Saturday at Santa Anita is 3:30 p.m. for a nine-race card. The La Canada goes as the eighth race at 7:04 p.m. The field in post position order: Ooty, Tiago Pereira (8-1); Fugitive Star, Hector Berrios (12-1); So There She Was, Emisael Jaramillo (9-5); Brilliantly, Juan Hernandez (7-5); Nafisa, Kazushi Kimura (5-1); Jane Austen, Abel Lezcano (6-1).
