A training record for Phil D’Amato, a breakout riding season for Juan Hernandez, and a memorable first stakes win for the incomparable Flightline highlighted Santa Anita Park’s 2021-22 Winter/Spring Meet. The iconic Southern California track finished its 76-day meet Sunday with an 11-race card featuring three stakes races. One of […]
The Hollywood Gold Cup is the race movie stars attended and the race won by a movie star – Seabiscuit, who won the inaugural Gold Cup in 1938. It’s the race won by Triple Crown champions Affirmed and Citation, who retired after winning the 1951 edition. That race made him […]
The rolling freight train that is Express Train makes another stop Saturday in Santa Anita Park’s Grade 2 Californian Stakes. That’s one of the featured events of the California track’s return to racing after a week’s planned hiatus between its Winter and Spring meets. The last time we saw Express […]
John Shirreffs is on this year’s short list for induction into the National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame this year. But Saturday brought the 76-year-old trainer an early, long-sought honor, one that eluded him for years. A Santa Anita Handicap trip to the winner’s circle. Express Train crossed that off Shirreffs’ […]
Win the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and you immediately enter the discussion of the country’s best older horses. Win the 1 ¼-mile “Big ‘Cap†and you join a club featuring the likes of Seabiscuit, Hill Rise, Ack Ack, Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, John Henry (twice), Alysheba, Best Pal, Tiznow, Game […]
Express Train is attempting to do something in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes that illustrates how deep the field of this race typically is. California Chrome didn’t do it. Neither did Accelerate. Nor Silver Charm, Alphabet Soup, Flying Paster, or Native Diver. All of the above won this sturdy […]
Hot Rod Charlie, Art Collector, Medina Spirit and Stilleto Boy all come into the Breeders’ Cup Classic off career-best speed figures on all three barometers. Essential Quality and Max Player enter the fray off career-best marks on two tables. So what to make of this year’s 10-horse field in what […]
Medina Spirit is considered one of the “kids†in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes, a change in status from what his consideration would have been, had he run in last week’s Pennsylvania Derby. From one of the fellow 3-year-olds in that race, to one of the kids in Saturday’s […]
Fueled by an eight-figure Jackpot Pick 6 pool, Del Mar set a single-day handle record Saturday, drawing $36,005,613 in wagers. The windfall washed down on Del Mar’s 11-race Pacific Classic card. In doing so, it destroyed the previous record of $25,870,431 set on Pacific Classic day in 2018. Much of […]
There isn’t a lot of star power in this year’s Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar. What there is, however, is one of Jon White’s more challenging morning-line puzzles. Del Mar’s morning-line author, White found himself staring at one of the most competitive fields he’s faced this summer. Yes, […]
The Hollywood Gold Cup inaugural winner was Seabiscuit. Its last winner was Improbable. And in between, one of the West Coast’s signature races turned loose winners such as three-time champs Lava Man and Native Diver, two-time winner Game on Dude and Triple Crown owners Citation and Affirmed. August company, to […]
The Santa Anita Handicap was the race that put Seabiscuit into the Depression-era public conscience. It was the first race offering a $100,000 purse, earning it the nickname “The Hundred Grander,†back when that was real money. Now, Maxfield is putting the Santa Anita Handicap back on the racing map. […]
This weekend’s stakes lineup features one of the most iconic races in American horse racing, the Santa Anita Handicap. But even that event, technically Santa Anita Park’s Saturday headliner, may get overshadowed on its own card by a Grade 2 Kentucky Derby prep, the San Felipe Stakes. Featuring two of […]
Two Kentucky Derby preps – one on each coast – grab this weekend’s stakes spotlight. Those are the Grade 3 Holy Bull from Gulfstream Park and the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis from Santa Anita Park. Not to be forgotten are two Kentucky Oaks preps, the Grade 3 Forward Gal […]
With Charlatan winning Bob Baffert’s 17th Grade 1 race of 2020 headlining an 11-race, six-stakes card, Santa Anita Park set an all-time opening day handle record of $23,003,159 Saturday. That surpassed the previous record: 2018’s 11-race opening-day handle, by more than $2.51 million. And it did so without the traditional […]
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