With a jockeys room full of top talent and world-class racing the order of the day, Santa Anita's Classic Meet opener in Arcadia, Calif., on Tuesday proved a rousing success, as an on-track crowd of 37,143 contributed to a robust all-sources handle of $18.3 million, which rates as the best handle ever among a total of 17 opening dates conducted on a Tuesday.
“From a business standpoint, opening on a Tuesday is always a challenge because so many people are back to work,” said Santa Anita senior vice president and general manager Nate Newby. “We want to sincerely thank our fans for their tremendous support and our horsemen, trainers, jockeys and owners, for putting on a magnificent show today.
“From start to finish, we had great, safe racing, on both turf and dirt. We had tight finishes and great competition. The Malibu was one of three Grade 1 stakes and anybody who saw it had to be impressed by the performances of both Speed Boat Beach and Hejazi. Speed Boat Beach got seven furlongs in 1:21.70, which was less than two fifths of a second off what Flightline did (in 2021).”
Both Speed Boat Beach and Hejazi are trained by Bob Baffert, who picked up his sixth lifetime win in the Malibu, putting him in a dead heat for the all-time Malibu lead with fellow Hall of Famer Richard Mandella.
A 14-time Santa Anita Winter Meet leading rider and a winner of six runnings of the Malibu, Santa Anita's all-time leading rider Laffit Pincay, Jr. was on-hand to present the Malibu trophy.
Trainer Mark Glatt saddled three winners on the day, including Watsonville in the Grade 2 Mathis Mile and jockey Flavien Prat, back at Santa Anita to ride full time this winter, registered a hat trick as well, with his big win coming aboard Speed Boat Beach.
Phil D'Amato got off to a great start on opening day, saddling a pair of stakes winners, French-bred Easter in the Grade 2 San Gabriel on turf and Newgrange in the Grade 2 San Antonio on the main track.
Italian-born Antonio Fresu had a stakes double, taking the San Gabriel with Easter and the Mathis Mile aboard Watsonville.
Fellow Italian Umberto Rispoli took the day's first race aboard the Dan Blacker-trained Bigofromfresno and came back to take the Grade I American Oaks aboard trainer Leonard Powell's English-bred Anisette.
Live racing resumes at Santa Anita on Friday and will continue through Monday, Jan. 1, with first post time each day at 12 noon PT.
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