ARCADIA – The last time Locked ran at Santa Anita, in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, he went off favored on the tote board but endured a troubled trip around the track and finished a well-beaten third.
In the colt’s return Saturday, for the Santa Anita Handicap, he was again favored, and this time there was no disappointment.
Locked and jockey Jose Ortiz took a wide path around both turns but overcame the loss of ground and then some, powering away to an 8½-length victory, the largest in 88 runnings of the $300,000, Grade I race.
“We felt like we didn’t get the fairest of shakes in the Breeders’ Cup when he was here at (age) 2, and thankfully, he got redemption today,” said Aron Wellman, head of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, who are among Locked’s owners.
Locked (who paid $3.40 to win) covered 1¼ miles in 2:01.71, the fastest clocking for the Santa Anita Handicap since Shaman Ghost’s 2:01.57 in 2017.
Trained in Florida by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Locked also became the first horse since Shaman Ghost to come in from out of state and win the Santa Anita Handicap.
Finishing second was Express Train, the tenacious 8-year-old trying to win Santa Anita’s most historic race for the second time after doing it in 2022. Locked’s fellow Florida shipper Hit Show finished third.
The order was completed by Midnight Mammoth, JB Strikes Back, Katonah, New King and pacesetter Mirahmadi, and Tarantino was scratched.
But it was 4-year-old Locked’s race all the way, even if that wasn’t obvious when he went into the first turn running sixth, four paths out from the rail after starting from post 7 in the field of eight.
Wellman spread the credit around after the Big ’Cap, which capped a day when his ownership group also won the $300,000, Grade II San Felipe Stakes with Journalism.
Wellman said Ortiz told him before the race: “I’m not going to worry too much about how much ground I lose, I just want to make sure (Locked is) engaged and in the clear.” It went as Ortiz planned.
Wellman said it was jockey John Velazquez who recommended fitting Locked with blinkers after riding him in his Grade II Cigar Mile victory and two other races. After Locked threw his head right before the start of the Jan. 25 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park and finished a distant second to White Abarrio, Wellman said, it was time for the equipment change.
“It certainly looks like it did the trick,” Wellman said.
The win makes Locked 5 for 8 in his career, with earnings over $1.6 million, and three for four since returning from an 11-month layoff forced by a knee injury that kept him off the 2024 Triple Crown trail.
“You never take anything for granted (about a horse coming back),” Wellman said. “He had a really bizarre injury that not a lot of people had seen before. A lot of hands went into his return to the races.”
The moment was emotional for Wellman, a Southern California native and Rancho Santa Fe resident who played soccer at UC Santa Barbara.
“It’s a huge honor to be here with a horse like Locked,” he said in the winner’s circle on a cloudy day with temperatures in the 60s. “I grew up coming to Santa Anita every weekend with my parents. To win a race like the Big ’Cap, it’s what dreams are made of.”
Locked, who won the Grade I Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland before his Breeders’ Cup loss to Fierceness, ends a string of seven Big ’Cap winners who came into the race without a Grade I win.
He should move up in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association rankings after being No. 5 this week behind White Abarrio, Thorpedo Anna, Sierra Leone and Straight No Chaser.
If all goes well, he can get more redemption at the 2025 Breeders’ Cup, where Locked should be a contender for the $7 million Classic Nov. 1 at Del Mar.