SANTA ANITA LEADERS
(Through Monday)
Jockeys / Wins
Juan Hernandez / 43
Flavien Prat / 41
Umberto Rispoli / 32
Tiago Pereira / 23
Antonio Fresu / 22
Hector Berrios / 22
Trainers / Wins
Mark Glatt / 25
Bob Baffert / 23
Jeff Mullins / 18
Michael McCarthy / 18
Doug O’Neill / 18
Richard Baltas / 15
UPCOMING STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
• $100,000, Grade III San Luis Rey Stakes, 4-year-olds and up, 1½ miles on turf
Sunday
• $100,000 China Doll Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 1 mile on turf
LOS ALAMITOS
Saturday
• $500,000, Grade I Los Alamitos Oaks, 3-year-old quarter-horse fillies, 400 yards
Sunday
• $225,000 El Primero Del Ano Derby, 3-year-old quarter horses, 400 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Seven-year-olds Gold Phoenix (Kyle Frey riding) and Easter (Antonio Fresu) are among three entrants from the Phil D’Amato barn trying to give California’s leading turf-horse trainer his first win in the San Luis Rey Stakes. Saturday’s 1½-mile race is the first start of 2024 for Gold Phoenix, a Grade I winner who ran a good fourth behind Rebel’s Romance in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar in November. Easter comes off a fast-closing second behind front-running There Goes Harvard in last month’s San Marcos Stakes.
• Kazushi Kimura, who rides Wizard of Westwood in the San Luis Rey, is scheduled to return to racing with three mounts at Santa Anita on Friday, more than two months after he fractured his left leg in a starting-gate accident. Kimura was fourth in the Santa Anita jockey standings in wins and first in stakes wins when he was injured.
• In Los Alamitos quarter-horse racing, Beach Walk (Martin Arriaga) and Bold N Beautiful (Eduardo Nicasio) give trainer Juan Aleman and owner Gentry Farms two big chances to win Saturday night’s Los Alamitos Oaks. The field was being set Thursday for Sunday night’s Primero Del Ano Derby, for which the fastest qualifier is Train B Taka (Edwin Escobedo).
• Dan Piazza, a financial advisor from Chicago, led after each of the three days of the 26th National Horseplayers Championship and earned the tournament’s $825,000 first prize Sunday in Las Vegas. Piazza piled up the highest payoffs on win and place bets to win the NHC in his fourth time qualifying. Dylan Donnelly of Alta Loma and Len Hanson of Redondo Beach finished fifth (worth $125,000) and sixth ($90,000). Tyler Hoffman of Pasadena, profiled here last week, wasn’t among the weekend contenders.
• The decisive round of Kentucky Derby qualifying races begins Saturday with the 1 3/16-mile Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds and the 1⅛-mile Jeff Ruby on the synthetic track at Turfway Park in Kentucky. With available points rising to 100-50-25-15-10 for the top five, a spot in the May 3 Kentucky Derby would be all but assured with a top-three finish by Louisiana Derby favorites John Hancock (Flavien Prat riding), Built (Jose Ortiz) and Chunk of Gold (Jareth Loveberry) and Jeff Ruby favorites Poster (John Velazquez) and California Burrito (Irving Moncada). Santa Anita-based trainer Peter Eurton has Charlie’s to Blame (Juan Hernandez) in the Jeff Ruby.
• The April 5 Santa Anita Derby is shaping up as the strongest Triple Crown prep after Journalism closed as 5-1 favorite and Citizen Bull as 9-1 third choice in last weekend’s Kentucky Derby future betting. Sovereignty, aiming for the March 29 Florida Derby, is 7-1.
• Worry about the sport’s future in Florida intensified as a state House committee advanced a bill Monday that would lift the requirement that Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs hold live racing to be allowed to run casinos. The bill would ensure at least five more years of racing – up from three in the original version – and allow operators to build new tracks. But people who depend on the industry see that less as a reprieve than a death sentence. The bill is backed by 1/ST Racing, which owns Gulfstream as well as Santa Anita.
• Harness-racing driver Hunter Myers was killed in a six-horse accident Wednesday at The Meadows racetrack near Pittsburgh. Myers, who was thrown from his bike and hit his head on the ground, died at a nearby hospital. The 27-year-old won 2,450 races.
• The Chosen Vron, the 2023 and 2024 California-bred Horse of the Year who was retired from racing this week, finished his career with purse earnings of $1,709,678 from 19 victories (18 in stakes) from 25 starts. Those earnings rank 19th among Cal-breds all-time. Will anyone touch the top four, California Chrome ($14.7 million), Tiznow ($6.4 million), Best Pal ($5.6 million) and Lava Man ($5.2 million)?
— Kevin Modesti