BY STEVE KOCH
Nooni, the lone Florida-bred in Saturday’s $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes (Grade 2) at Los Alamitos, returns from a 19-month layoff in a seven-horse field topped by a two-time defending heroine. The fillies and mares go six-and-a-half furlongs.
Bred in Florida by Ocala Stud, Joseph M. O’Farrell III and David O’Farrell and racing for Zedan Racing Stables, Nooni breaks from post seven under jockey Ricardo Gonzalez for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. She’s by Ocala Stud stallion Win Win Win out of the Union Rags mare Unanimity, and sold for $1.8 million as a 2-year-old at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale where she was consigned by Ocala Stud.
Her form line reads like a blueprint of the Southern California juvenile circuit. She broke her maiden at Santa Anita last June and highlighted her juvenile campaign with a front-running win in the Grade 3 Sorrento at Del Mar and a game second in the Grade 2 Oak Leaf back at Santa Anita. She started three more times against graded company that season: a fifth in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, a sixth in the Grade 1 NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar, and a fifth in the Grade 2 Starlet at Los Alamitos in December 2024, her last start.
From her six starts, she owns two wins and a place for $212,400 in earnings. Baffert has worked her steadily this spring at Santa Anita, including a pair of bullet drills.
Her chief threat is Sweet Azteca, a two-time winner of the Great Lady M, having set a course record in the 2024 edition and matched that effort in the 2025 tilt. Trained by Richard Baltas for Pamela C. Ziebarth and drawn inside, she gets a new rider in Armando Ayuso, picking up the mount after regular rider Hernandez partnered her last out in a win over the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap at Del Mar last August. Her resume includes seven wins (five in Graded stakes including the Grade 1 Beholder Mile in 2024) and a third from nine career starts for $667,200 in earnings.
The rest of the field has its own storylines: Grand Slam Smile, unbeaten in one try at Los Alamitos, becomes a millionaire with a first-, second- or third-place finish; A.Z. Wildcat steps into graded company for the first time off a front-running optional-claiming win; and Magnificat, Prancingthruparis and A Thousand Miles round out the field.
Return to the July 3 issue of Wire to Wire
