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Santa Anita Kicks Off 87th Winter/Spring Season of Racing Monday

Santa Anita Park will launch its annual winter/spring live racing season on Monday with a 11-race card featuring six stakes races, highlighted by the $300,000 GI Runhappy Malibu S., $300,000 GI American Oaks, and $300,000 GI La Brea S., the last three Grade Is of the year in the U.S.

Dubbed this season for the first time as the Classic Meet, racing at Santa Anita will be conducted on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule through Apr. 9, the exceptions being Monday, Jan. 2 for the New Year's Day holiday, Monday, Jan. 16 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Monday, Feb. 20 for Presidents' Day. After a brief respite in the spring, live racing will return for a 25-day meet Apr. 22, concluding June 18.

The first race on opening day is set for 11:00 a.m. PST. Then post time will be at noon daily through Jan. 8, at 12:30 p.m. PST through Mar. 12 and 1:00 p.m. PST for the remainder of the Classic Meet with the exception of big-race days.

A total of 93 stakes worth $17.5 million, including 10 Grade Is, are on tap during the 3 ½-month meeting. Led by the $750,000 million GI Santa Anita Derby Apr. 8, the 2022-2023 stakes schedule is rich with GI Kentucky Derby prep races and coveted Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying points. These important Triple Crown prep races are the GIII Sham S. on Jan. 8, which is worth 10 points to the winner; the GIII Robert B. Lewis S. on Feb. 5, also worth 10; and GII San Felipe S. on Mar. 4 which guarantees 50 Road to the Kentucky Derby points to the winner. Overall, 11 winners of the Santa Anita Derby–and 18 runners in California's final prep for the Run for the Roses–have gone on to stand in the winner's circle at Churchill Downs reserved for one horse a year in Louisville on the first Saturday in May, the most recent being 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy).

This year, the historic GI Santa Anita H. will be worth $500,000 and the 1 1/4-mile event has been scheduled for Mar. 4. It remains one of the handful of original stakes events contested each year since Santa Anita opened in 1935.

Zedan Racing's Grade I winner and TDN Rising Star Taiba (Gun Runner) will face eight others in the Malibu in his first start since a third-place finish in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic. Should the chestnut colt win, he would become the only 3-year-old male to win three Grade Is in 2022 and give trainer Bob Baffert a fifth Malibu winner, one shy of fellow Hall of Famer Richard Mandella. The $1.7 million FTFMAR 2-year-old purchase also won the Santa Anita Derby in his second start back in April.

Flightline (Tapit) won his first stakes race in last year's Malibu en-route to a likely 2022 Horse of the Year and champion older male Eclipse Awards.

Mandella will send out multiple Grade II winner Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah) for the seven-furlong test, while former California-based trainer Wesley Ward will try to take advantage of the lucrative ship-and-win money with recent Keeneland allowance winner Nakatomi (Firing Line).

The Malibu has been carded as the 10th race on the card with a 3:30 p.m. PST post time.

Baffert will tighten the girth on four of eight for the La Brea in seeking a record ninth winner, including GII Zenyatta S. winner Midnight Memories (Mastery), GII Summertime Oaks heroine Under The Stars (Pioneerof the Nile) and Fun To Dream (Arrogate), who won the Betty Grable S. at Del Mar last month. Trainer Rudy Rodriguez shipped GIII Victory Ride S. winner Hot Peppers (Khozan) and her jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, to the Left Coast in what will be her first start in 2 1/2 months. Post time for the La Brea, which is the day's 8th race, is 2:30 p.m. PST.

Anchoring the day's card with a 4:11 p.m. PST post time is the American Oaks, which drew a field of 11 runners from coast to coast. Joining the local contingent set to line up will be two trained by East Coast-based Graham Motion, and one each from Brendan Walsh, Chad Brown and Shug McGaughey. Last year's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) debuts for Motion after her previous eight-race career in the hands of Christophe Clement. She most recently was a $3.45 million RNA at KEENOV and returns in the colors of celebrity chef Bobby Flay.

Pizza Bianca will join her new stablemate, GIII Valley View S. winner Sparkle Blue (Hard Spun), in the gate, while Walsh will for the first time send out G1 Bet365 Fillies Mile S. winner Mise En Scene (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) returning to action off a sixth-place finish in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. McGaughey shipped G2 Sands Point S. winner Skims (GB) (Frankel {GB}) to California with the Brown-trained Winter Memories S. winner and TDN Rising Star Salimah (Ire) (El Kabeir) for the 10-furlong turf test.

Other stakes on the Monday card include the $200,000 GIII Santa Anita Mathis Mile, which drew a field of seven turf milers including I'm A Gambler (Ire) (No Nay Never), who sold for a sales-topping $1,076,000 at TATIHA in October to Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal; the $200,000 GII San Gabriel S., a 1 1/8-mile turf test and traditional early prep for the historic GIII San Juan Capistrano S. at the end of the season; and the $200,000 GII San Antonio S., in years past a traditional prep for the Big 'Cap but more recently used as a stepping stone to both the $6 million G1 Dubai World Cup and $20 million G1 Saudi Cup. Last year's Dubai World Cup winner Country Grammer (Tonalist) will have European champion jockey Frankie Dettori back aboard in the 1 1/16-mile test for the first time since the pair teamed up for the win at Meydan nine months ago. Dettori, in his first and likely last winter in California before his retirement from the saddle at the end of 2023, is scheduled to ride five on the Monday card.

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Missed The Cut Possible for Dubai, America in 2023

Newmarket-based trainer George Boughey is mapping out a 2023 campaign for Royal Ascot winner Missed The Cut (Quality Road), which includes a potential trip to Dubai and possibly America.

“There's a chance that he could go to America,” Boughey said. “There's a race called the Santa Anita H. on Mar. 4, which is a Grade I on dirt. We'll see, but he's doing very well physically and I always said to [co-owner] Bill Farish and the guys at Lane's End that I didn't want to over-race him this year but I wanted to make him a stakes winner, which we have.”

Following Pontefract maiden and Salisbury novice wins, the 3-year-old captured the Golden Gates H. at the Royal Ascot meeting in June under New Zealand-born rider James McDonald. The Quality Road colt disappointed on his next appearance in the G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville, but bounced back to make a successful all-weather debut in last month's Listed Churchill S. at Lingfield.

“There's a lot of good horses that have flourished at four, he's still a big baby and all the options are open,” Boughey said. “He's on the list for Dubai and I think we've got to treat him like a good horse and all those top 10-furlong Grade 1s around the world next year will hopefully be where we're looking at.”

Another Boughey trainee set to have her passport stamped in the coming weeks is Perdika (GB) (Unfortunately {Ire}), who notched a fourth successive win in a Kempton nursery earlier this week. While All-Weather Championships Finals Day at Newcastle is an obvious target, the youngster is first bound for Meydan.

“She's probably going to go to Dubai for the winter,” Boughey added. “She could come back for Finals Day, but we'll see. She's already had enough qualifying runs to get her into the race on Finals Day if we wanted and a stiff six (furlongs) there [Newcastle] could suit her. She's due to fly to Dubai on the 29th of this month and can go for those 3-year-old fillies' races. I've never run her on turf, but she worked well on turf before she ran for us and I'd see her as a typical horse to take out there for the winter.”

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Express Train On Top After Big ‘Cap Battle

EXPRESS TRAIN (h, 5, Union Rags–I'm a Flake, by Mineshaft) came out on top of a stretch-long duel after a wide journey in Saturday's GI Santa Anita H. to justify even-money favoritism and complete a clean sweep of the GII San Antonio S., GII San Pasqual S. and Big 'Cap. Lightly raced Warrant (Constitution) fought on gamely but came up a neck short. Stilleto Boy (Shackleford) picked up yet another Grade I placing. The final time was 2:03.22 for 10 panels. Sales History: $500,000 ylg '18 KEESEP. O-C R K Stable LLC. B-Dixiana Farms LLC (KY). T-John A. Shirreffs.

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Whether Riding in The Big ‘Cap or the Nightcap, Rosario Is a Master of Timing

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton

Generally speaking, when your horse is parked near last for most of the trip, fanned six wide on the far turn, fifth with a furlong to go, and still third 100 yards from the wire, your chances of winning are slim.

Unless Joel Rosario is riding, of course.

That was the exact scenario facing Idol (Curlin) in deep stretch of Saturday's GI Santa Anita H. at Santa Anita Park. Yet “Judicious Joel,” who at age 36 is without fanfare blossoming into the absolute master of timing in modern American racing, was once again confidently capable of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

If and when in-race wagering arrives on a large scale here in the States, discerning bettors are going to make a killing taking vastly overlaid odds on the late runners that Rosario rides, knowing that if the horse has it in him to close a seemingly insurmountable gap, Rosario is going to elicit that effort in the most efficient way possible.

Yes, the “Big 'Cap” has lost some of its luster over the last several decades because of the glut of global big-money races now scheduled during the first quarter of the year.

In 1996, the “world's richest race” lure of the G1 Dubai World Cup first made a dent in the stature of North America's premier dirt race for older horses.

Then the 2017 advent of the GI Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park coincided with The Stronach Group's trimming of the Big Cap's purse at sister track Santa Anita from its $1-million level and the selling of the race's sponsorship rights to a casino.

The arrival of the $20-million Saudi Cup in 2020 further crowded the international calendar at the Big 'Cap's expense. The 2021 edition run 10 days ago siphoned away America's top two older dirt males, Knicks Go (Paynter) and Charlatan (Speightstown), the latter of whom is stabled right at Santa Anita but instead shipped hallway around the planet to run for absurdly more purse money.

Yet even diminished, the Big 'Cap still resonates at a certain level of importance. Just ask an emotional Richard Baltas, Idol's trainer, who had to compose himself before saying in the winner's circle interview that “I've been coming here since I was 13 years old. Before I even got to be a horse trainer, I saw all the greats run here in the Big 'Cap and you never think that you're going to be here, but you keep working hard and God blessed you.”

Idol ended up winning the Big 'Cap by a well-timed half a length, which is a comparatively wide margin of victory for Rosario in Santa Anita's showcase race, which he has now won three years in a row.

In 2020, Rosario was aboard Combatant (Scat Daddy), who won the Big 'Cap by a neck with a stalking trip and a four-wide sweep off the turn.

In 2019, partnering with Gift Box (Twirling Candy), Rosario forced the issue on the front end, then held off a late charge by the 2-5 favorite to prevail by a nose.

The Big 'Cap victory Saturday boosted Rosario's wins in graded stakes races in 2021 to nine. You'd have to add together the totals of his next two closest rivals (Irad Ortiz Jr. and Luis Saez, who have five each) to top that fast start through the first 11 weeks of the year.

When Rosario doesn't win a graded stakes, he's infrequently far off the hunt. He's hit the board with nine other graded stakes mounts, which puts him at an ultra-impressive nation-leading 18-for-24 (75%) in-the-money clip among jockeys with at least 10 graded stakes starts.

Overall, those nine graded stakes wins account for 28% of all of Rosario's 32 victories this season so far.

“I knew [Idol] wanted all of a mile and a quarter, and the jockey made a bit of a difference too,” Baltas said. “We needed all of Rosario's power in the stretch to get him home.”

But while Baltas emphasized Rosario's strength, that's only part of his skill set. Even more remarkable is how Rosario meshes that power with patience.

He's also one of the most selective riders in the game about employing his stick. Although no one keeps statistics on this sort of thing, I'd be willing to wager that Rosario leads the nation in cocking his crop, looking back quickly to get a sense of where his stretch competition is, then putting the whip away after making a split-second decision that it's not needed.

Barely a half-hour after his emphatic win aboard Idol, Rosario gave another prime example of how to eke out a victory in disciplined fashion.

Riding the layoff maiden Defunded (Dialed In), Rosario sat chilly while eighth in a 12-horse field, biding his time atop a second-time starter who had been fractious as the beaten favorite under another jockey in his only other start.

Nudged to pick up the pace around the far turn, Defunded quickly inhaled half the field and had built enough steam to launch into contention at the top of the stretch. But he bumped and brushed repeatedly while bulling through traffic, and Rosario had to snatch his mount off the heels of a tiring foe, a move that might have been a momentum-staller for other riders.

Yet Rosario deftly kept his mount focused and barreling forward onward under a hand ride without overreacting and resorting to the whip. The pair coasted home to a measured half-length win at 8-1 odds, underscoring that whether it's the Big 'Cap or just an ordinary nightcap, “Judicious Joel” is truly on a roll.

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