With a total of 23 races, including six stakes to be run over Saturday and Sunday and the possibility of a $3 million mandatory payout in Sunday's 20 cent Rainbow Pick 6 Jackpot, Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., will also guarantee $500,000 pools in the 50 cent Late Pick 5, thus setting the pari-mutuel table for a tremendous closing weekend at The Great Race Place.
In addition to great racing, a wide variety of promotions will be available over the weekend, including the return of the track's popular Infield Family Fun Zone, which features pony rides, inflatable jumpers, face painting and more. Fans are encouraged to visit santaanita.com/events for more information.
In a 76-day Winter/Spring Meeting that dates back to Dec. 26, jockey Juan Hernandez and trainer Phil D'Amato have wrapped up leading honors in their respective categories, as Hernandez has 100 wins through Friday's first race and D'Amato now has a record equaling 56 victories.
With first post time on both Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m., punters can look forward to a 12-race card Saturday, with a pair of $100,000 stakes for juveniles at five furlongs, the Fasig Tipton Debutante and the Fasig Tipton Futurity, along with the Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Maria Stakes, for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.
A field of seven juvenile fillies will go postward in the Debutante, which has been carded as race three. Trainer Jorge Periban's unbeaten Tom's Regret is the 6-5 morning line favorite. In Saturday's Fasig-Tipton Futurity, which goes as race 11, Reddam Racing's Absolutely Zero, the lone filly among eight male rivals, has been installed as the 8-5 favorite on Jon White's morning line.
Saturday's Rainbow 6 will begin with the Grade 2 Santa Maria, which has been carded as race seven. Baoma Corp's classy Private Mission is the 9-5 morning line favorite among a field of six.
Assigned post time for Saturday's seventh race is 4:12 p.m. PT. If there is no Single Ticket winner, Sunday's total Rainbow 6 pool with a mandatory payout, is expected to approach $3 million.
A total of 101 horses have been entered to run on Sunday's 11-race program with average field size in the 20 cent Rainbow 6, which is comprised of races six through 11, at 10 runners per race.
Assigned post time for Sunday's sixth race is 3:36 p.m. PT.
Three stakes will highlight Sunday's racing, beginning with the $100,000 Possibly Perfect, which has been carded as race five for fillies and mares at a mile and one quarter on turf. Trainer Leonard Powell's French-bred Neige Blanche is the 6-5 morning line favorite in a field of seven as she bids for her third stakes win of the meet with Hernandez up.
Santa Anita's traditional closing day feature, the Grade 3, $125,000 San Juan Capistrano, to be run at a mile and three quarters over Santa Anita's one of a kind Camino Real hillside turf course, has been carded as race seven.
D'Amato's 2020 San Juan winner, 8-year-old Red King, is the 5-2 favorite in a field of eight 3-year-olds and up.
The meet will end with a crescendo, as the Grade 3, $100,000 American Stakes, first won by Bing Crosby's Ligaroti in 1938 at Hollywood Park, has been carded as the 11th and final race.
For 3-year-olds an up at a flat mile on turf, the American could be the best betting race on the weekend as it attracted a field of 10 with the Dan Blacker-trained Vanzzy, who will be ridden by Joe Bravo, installed as the narrow 7-2 morning line choice.
Admission gates will open on both Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. For entries and complete morning line information, please visit santaanita.com.
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