Kopion stands out in Great Lady M.

One week after the racing world lost Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, it's perhaps fitting that his legacy will be recalled in Saturday's feature at Los Alamitos.

Not only was Lukas a dominant figure when training Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos in the 1970s, but the $200,000 Great Lady M. (G2) honors a filly Lukas saddled to seven stakes wins from 1978-80 after making the switch to training Thoroughbreds.

Great Lady M.'s own legacy was later secured when she foaled a filly by Secretariat named Lady's Secret, who Lukas trained to a 1986 Horse of the Year title and a spot in the Hall of Fame.

It's far too soon to anoint Kopion as a Hall of Fame-quality runner, but the daughter of Omaha Beach has displayed the potential to be a very special sprinter. She's undefeated around one turn in five attempts and enters the 6 1/2-furlong Great Lady M. on a three-race win streak.

Kopion kicked off her current streak in late December when taking the La Brea (G1), a race Great Lady M. won in 1979. Following that were even more impressive scores in the Santa Monica (G2) and Derby City Distaff (G1), in which she earned back-to-back 106 Brisnet Speed ratings.

From a class perspective, only Sweet Azteca merits a serious chance to topple Kopion. The circuit's top older female sprinter last season, she counted the Great Lady M. as one of her three stakes wins last term, but the gray mare has not been out since a puzzling last-place run in the Chillingworth (G3) last October. She has since been transferred from trainer Michael McCarthy to Richard Baltas.

Taking on the top two are One Magic Philly, who has dropped three straight since taking the Chillingworth; Super Shine and Chismosa, the past two winners of the Desert Stormer S.; and stakes newcomer Barbara T, whose first two wins earned Brisnet Speed ratings in the upper 90s.

Kopion, however, looks far too strong on paper in what will serve as a bridge to the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Del Mar in November.