ARCADIA, Calif.– The last time Got Stormy raced in California, she was successful as a strong favorite in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar on Dec. 1, her sixth stakes win. She is still stuck on that number after a surprising fourth at 1-5 in the Grade 3 Endeavour Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 8. Trainer Mark Casse on Thursday blamed himself for the loss and is looking toward Saturday’s Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita as an opportunity to prove Got Stormy is just as brilliant in early March as she was last fall when she won the Matriarch and was a game second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile here on Nov. 2. “It was probably my fault,” Casse said of Got Stormy’s two-length loss. “I probably went in there with too much confidence.” Casse said he changed Got Stormy’s training routine after the Tampa loss, sending her to Palm Meadows for a half-mile turf workout in a rapid 45.70 seconds on Feb. 23. Got Stormy had her final breeze for the Kilroe on Feb. 29, a half-mile in 47 seconds on turf. “She does her best when she can breeze on the grass,” he said. Got Stormy, 5, was anxious before the Endeavour, a tendency she had not shown since her 3-year-old season. “She kind of lost it,” he said. “She was just a mess. She lost her race prior to it. I think it was a perfect storm. Maybe I didn’t have her as tight as I should have. Maybe I didn’t have her mentally ready for it. “People have asked me how she got so good, and I said it was because of her mind. At 3, she was a nervous wreck. At 4, she was much better. She’s as ready as she can be.” :: To stay up to date, follow us on: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter Got Stormy, who races for Gary Barber, has won eight of 19 starts and earned $1,438,078. A finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2019, Got Stormy beat males in the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga last August and will try to do it again in the Kilroe Mile, which is for 4-year-olds and up. She was later second in the Woodbine Mile in September and was beaten 1 1/2 lengths as the 3-1 favorite by Uni in the BC Mile. Uni was named champion turf female of 2019. Got Stormy, who will be ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, typically runs from off the pace. That is a popular style among the 10 entrants in the $400,000 Kilroe Mile. The field includes two other Grade 1 winners in Next Shares and Ohio; the Grade 2 winners Desert Stone, River Boyne, and True Valour; the Grade 3 winner Kingly; the stakes-placed Frontier Market; as well as Sash and Sellwood. Got Stormy will start from post 3 and is expected to settle toward the back of the field under Gaffalione. “I like our post even though there will be some outside pressure,” Casse said. “She will probably have a target on her back. That’s the bad news. The good news is she is very tactical. She’s has a quick turn of foot. When you punch the gas, there is usually something there.” Ohio, 9, won the Kilroe Mile last March and the Cotton Fitzsimmons Handicap at Turf Paradise in January, a race in which River Boyne was third. River Boyne returned to record a stylish win in the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile here on Feb. 8. River Boyne ended an eight-race losing streak in the Thunder Road, the first time he was ridden by Abel Cedillo. River Boyne was third for the first half-mile and rallied between horses to take the lead before the eighth pole. “I hope I can do the same as I did last time,” Cedillo said last weekend in reference to his Kilroe tactics. True Valour did not have as good of a trip in the Thunder Road. He finished third, a nose behind Camino Del Paraiso. Ridden by Andrea Atzeni, True Valour raced in traffic leaving the turn and closed from sixth in the final furlong. “I think he would have been right there,” trainer Simon Callaghan said. “Andrea said without question second, and he felt he would have won.” With his closing style, True Valour is reliant on clear racing through the final three furlongs of what are often hectic one-mile turf races. Umberto Rispoli has the mount on Saturday. “He’s got to be ridden a specific way,” Callagan said. “He’s going to get that trip now and then.” China Doll draws 14 Warren’s Showtime, who won the California Cup Oaks for statebreds on Jan. 18, is one of two stakes winners in Saturday’s $75,000 China Doll Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile on turf. The China Doll, the seventh of 12 races, drew a field of 14, the largest field of the five stakes on Saturday. The China Doll will be the American debut of Stela Star, who beat males in the Group 3 Killavullan Stakes at Leopardstown, Ireland, last October. Stela Star is now trained by John Sadler, who has spoken highly of the two-time winner in recent weeks.