The monstrous shadow of Gamine will emerge from her five-month vacation on Sunday when the Champion Female Sprinter of 2020 makes her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes at Santa Anita Park. She will likely make it as the odds-on favorite for the six-furlong Las Flores. The […]
Tag: Santa Anita Park
With Life Is Good Out, Baffert Shuffles His Derby Prospects
With Life Is Good off the Kentucky Derby Trail with what’s been diagnosed as an ankle chip, Bob Baffert shuffled his deep bench of Derby contenders. The shuffle means both Medina Spirit and trail newcomer Defunded will run the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 3. Baffert made the […]
Santa Anita Park Reopens to Fans in Time for April 2 Derby
With California relaxing guidelines on allowing limited crowds into sporting venues, Santa Anita Park announced Thursday it will reopen to the public on Friday, April 2. That’s just in time for the following day’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. Track officials didn’t reveal how many tickets they will sell or […]
A Beautiful Finish Was in Swiss Skydiver’s Eye in the Beholder
Bring the jury in on Swiss Skydiver. Throw out whatever doubts you may have held on the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly impressing as a 4-year-old. Swiss Skydiver didn’t exactly pick up in 2021 where she left off in 2020 after stumbling out of the gate at the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Her […]
Prat Ties Legendary Pincay’s Record With Six Consecutive Wins
Flavien Prat is fast making a disappearing act of the Santa Anita Park Winter/Spring Meet jockey title, which became clear when he tied a Santa Anita Park record Friday. Prat won six consecutive races Friday, finishing the feat aboard Disappearing Act in Santa Anita’s seventh race. Prat took Disappearing Act […]
Life Is Good Shows He’s Eight Lengths Good in San Felipe Romp
The hardest part of analyzing Life Is Good’s dismantling of Saturday’s San Felipe Stakes field at Santa Anita Park is determining what was the most impressive element of his victory. Was it the eight-length victory? The legitimate fractions of 23.63 seconds for the first quarter-mile and 46.83 for the first […]
San Felipe Stakes: Where Life Is Good to Bob Baffert
The Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes marks the point of the year where Bob Baffert’s endless 3-year-old depth finally makes him compete with himself. Yes, he’s sent out Life Is Good and Medina Spirit in the Sham. Yes, we saw Concert Tour nip Freedom Fighter in the San Vicente. But […]
Mucho Unusual Takes Her Usual Path to Buena Vista Stakes Gate
Like her father, who put himself out there against the best horses of his era, Mucho Unusual dodges nobody. Put a graded stakes race out there for fillies and mares, and Mucho Unusual is a usual suspect. Better yet, put it on the Santa Anita Park turf, where the California-bred […]
Baffert’s Next Move: One Derby Prospect Stays Home, One Hits Road
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert began plotting his next moves for his deep bench of Kentucky Derby prospects, with the first move sending top prospect Life Is Good to the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita Park. Baffert’s second move sends Freedom Fighter across the country for […]
Weekend Stakes Span the Globe From Saudi Arabia to California
Looking at this weekend’s notable stakes races takes the eye halfway around the world to the $20 million Saudi Cup. Another look also takes the eye back to three races postponed from last weekend to this weekend – the Southwest Stakes, the Bayakoa Stakes, and the Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn […]
Santa Anita, Del Mar Form Posse for $1 Million Wild West Bonus
Seeking to keep their top Western horses home – while luring Eastern horses west – Santa Anita Park and Del Mar created the $1 Million Wild West Bonus. That bonus goes to the connections of any horse who sweeps the three Southern California elite races for older horses, the Santa […]
Risen Star Brings Rising Derby Points to the Weekend Stakes
This weekend’s stakes races bring us Essential Quality making his 3-year-old debut in one Kentucky Derby prep. They bring us the first win-and-you’re-in Derby prep, and they bring us a Derby prep that gives the winner a berth in the Preakness Stakes. They also bring back Monomoy Girl for her […]
Amazonian Favorite Bezos Makes Anticipated Debut Today
Bezos makes his debut today in a maiden special weight race on Santa Anita Park’s Super Bowl Sunday card. This is hardly the class of race guaranteed to suck the oxygen out of the room on the biggest sporting day on the American calendar. In horseracing, however, today’s fifth race […]
The San Vicente: No Derby Points Awarded, Plenty of Derby Points Made
The Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita Park may not be a Kentucky Derby prep in the strictest sense of the term. There are no Derby qualifying points on the table and the winner gets no closer to a gate date at Churchill Downs the first Saturday of […]
Weekend Stakes: Not Every Good 3-Year-Old Race is a Derby Prep
We’ll see several Kentucky Derby hopefuls return this weekend when two East Coast Grade 3 Derby preps headline the stakes races. And, we’ll meet some Kentucky Oaks contenders in two Oaks preps – one on each coast. At the same time, we’ll see a Grade 2 for 3-year-olds that isn’t […]
Baffert’s Derby Prospect Medina Spirit Shows Plenty of Mettle in Lewis
This was a Grade 1 stretch duel playing out in a Grade 3 Kentucky Derby prep; one vaulting Medina Spirit into the front row of Derby contenders as we enter February. And once again, Bob Baffert holds yet another ace up his sleeve, along with his 10th Robert B. Lewis […]
Lewis Stakes Recount Historic Horses, Revive Current Rivalries
In 2012, little-known 43/1 long shot I’ll Have Another won the Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita Park. This feat drew mild murmurs and a few curious looks throughout the horseracing world. After all, the Doug O’Neill-trained colt came into the Lewis off a horrible sixth in the Hopeful […]
Santa Anita Scratches Friday’s Card Due to Expected Downpour
Citing a major winter storm expected this weekend, Santa Anita Park canceled its Friday racing card. The Southern California track announced the move Tuesday morning. Track officials announced that two turf stakes, the Grade 2 San Marcos on Saturday and Sunday’s Black-Type $75,000 Baffle, will move to next week. The […]
Holy Bull! This Weekend Stakes Features Cross-Country Derby, Oaks Preps
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 […]
Kentucky Derby Futures: Big Winners Make Big Odds Leaps
The first page of this week’s Kentucky Derby futures board got tighter – partly a byproduct of two horses getting loose from their rivals last weekend. The first was Caddo River, who moved to 16/1 at Circa Sports and 15/1 at William Hill Nevada. Dropping beneath 20/1 at this point […]