Eastern invaders go hunting in American Oaks

Led by Chad Brown’s 7-2 morning-line favorite Salimah, a quintet of Eastern-based fillies have made their way to The Great Race Place to chase Grade I glory in the $300,000 American Oaks at 1 1/4 miles on turf on Monday at Santa Anita Park.

The Oaks will mark the graded-stakes debut for Salimah, who has lured the services of top jockey Flavien Prat for the Oaks. She enters with three wins in four starts for her four-time Eclipse Award winning trainer, which includes most recently the Nov. 13 Winter Memories going 1 1/16 miles over yielding turf at Aqueduct. By the Scat Daddy stallion El Kabeir, the Irish-bred will try to provide Brown with a third American Oaks win in five years.

Skims, winner of the Oct. 15 Sand Point at Aqueduct last out, also comes west for trainer “Shug” McGaughey. As does Mise En Scene, a recent European import who will be making her first start for trainer Brendan Walsh. Mise En Scene came to the U.S. this fall to contest the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf and checked in fifth for previous trainer James Ferguson.

Eastern-based trainer Graham Motion has a string of 12 horses bedded down at Santa Anita for the first time since its synthetic-track era ended in 2010. Among those are Sparkle Blue and Pizza Bianca, who are both set to contest the Oaks.