Richard Baltas enjoyed a banner at Santa Anita on Saturday, winning three races and finishing second twice to create personal exactas.
The three victories gave him 13 for the meet and moved him into fourth place in the trainer standings at the Arcadia, Calif., track.
Baltas ran one-two in the fifth race with Miss Costa Rica and She's Devoted noses apart for a $31.60 exacta, first and second in the seventh with Sterling Crest and Carroll Girl for an $8.20 exacta, and capped his day with a victory by Cover Me Up in the eighth at a $10.60 payoff.
But three wins in one day was not a personal best for the 60-year-old native of Gary, Indiana.
“I won four in one day once at Del Mar, and three in one day many times,” Baltas said. “But I never ran first and second twice in the same day.”
Baltas has two horses nominated to the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes for 4-year-olds and up at about 6 ½ furlongs on the hillside turf course on Feb. 20 and plans to enter one but was undecided whether it would be Vanzzy or Whisper Not.
“I don't know which one, but I think one of them will run,” Baltas said. “The race could come up tough.”
There were 18 nominations to the $100,000 event. Vanzzy was a troubled fifth in the restricted Clockers' Corner on Jan. 22, his first race in four months, while the English-bred Whisper Not was seventh, beaten only 3 ½ lengths despite going wide in the Grade II Eddie D. Stakes last Oct. 1.
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