Santa Anita's leading trainer with 55 wins at closing day entry time, Phil D'Amato seeks his fourth consecutive win in Santa Anita's traditional closing day feature on Sunday, the Grade 3, $125,000 San Juan Capistrano Stakes. He'll send out a pair of veterans, 6-year-old Rijeka and 8-year-old past winner Red King, as they figure prominently among a field of eight 3-year-olds and up going a marathon 1 3/4 miles on turf with a hillside start.
Although Red King, who won the 2020 San Juan and was third in last year's edition is the more accomplished of the two, Irish-bred Rijeka is also in sharp current form and he'll be making his third start off an extended layoff on Sunday. An impressive off the pace allowance winner in his first start for D'Amato going 1 3/8 miles on turf three starts back on Aug. 19 at Del Mar, he comes off a clever starter allowance score going 1 ¼ miles on turf here May 15 and has thus won two out of his last three starts, all in partnership with turf ace Joe Bravo.
Like his stablemate Red King, it would appear that Rijeka's best case scenario is to lag early and make a big run late with “Jersey Joe,” who is currently ninth in the standings with 28 wins, including four stakes, riding his first-ever San Juan as he now approaches the one year mark as full-time rider in Southern California.
A 6-year-old gelding owned by Slam Dunk Racing and Michael Nentwig, Rijeka, although he's never won a stakes, has placed in four turf stakes lifetime, including a second place finish in the G3 Cecil B. DeMille at age two. Twice victorious at a mile and one half over the Gulfstream Park turf, he's 31-6-5-3 overall with earnings of $310,440.
A full horse at age eight, Red King, who will be making his fourth appearance in the San Juan Capistrano, having won it in 2020 and finishing third last year and also at age five in 2019, comes off a second place finish in a 1 1/4-mile turf allowance here on May 22. Ridden by Abel Cedillo, “Red” sat much closer to the early pace and finished evenly to be beaten by 1 ¼ lengths at 3-1. Far back early in the G3 San Luis Rey Stakes March 12, he lacked the necessary closing kick and was fifth, beaten 5 ¼ lengths.
A 1 3/8-mile turf allowance winner four starts back on Nov. 7 at Del Mar, Red King is 19-5-2-7 over the Santa Anita lawn and will likely be the post time favorite on Sunday. With Cedillo back aboard, Red King, a son of English Channel out of the A.P. Indy mare Youre Speeding, seeks his third lifetime stakes win in what will be his 41st career start.
Owned by Philip Belmonte and Gordon Jacobsen, Red King is 40-8-6-10 with earnings of $560,555.
Trainer Brendan Walsh's Irish-bred Modus Operandi ships in from Churchill Downs and looms a very serious threat from off the pace with Umberto Rispoli up. A 4-year-old gelding, Modus Operandi has one win from six stateside starts and was most recently a close eighth, beaten 3 ½ lengths in the G3 Louisville Stakes going 1 1/2 miles on turf at Churchill May 21.
A 4-year-old gelding by European superstar Frankel, Modus Operandi was bred in Ireland by Bobby Flay Thoroughbreds and has a 10-2-3-0 overall mark. Owned by Marc Detampel, Fergus Galvin and E Squared Stables, LLC, Modus Operandi will be making his second graded stakes start in his first appearance at Santa Anita.
THE GRADE 3 SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO WITH JOCKEYS & WEIGHTS IN POST POSITION ORDER
Race 7 of 11 Approximate post time 4 p.m. PT
- Breakpoint—Tyler Baze—122
- Kazan—Ryan Curatolo—122
- Avenue—Juan Hernandez—122
- Dean Martini—Edwin Maldonado—122
- Red King—Abel Cedillo—122
- Muhammed Ali—Tiago Pereira—122
- Modus Operandi—Umberto Rispoli–122
- Rijeka—Joe Bravo—122
First post time for an 11-race race card on closing day, Sunday, is at 1 p.m.
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