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Santa Anita Races Return To Friday’s Stronach 5 Wager

Santa Anita Park's much-anticipated opening day Friday also means it will be one of five featured races as part of the popular Stronach 5.

The cross-country wager with a low 12-percent takeout will also feature races from Laurel Park, Gulfstream Park and Golden Gate Fields. The sequence includes three turf races and maiden special weight events for 2-year-olds from Santa Anita and Laurel.

The Stronach 5 kicks off at 4:19 p.m. with Laurel's eighth race, an intriguing maiden special weight event for 2-year-olds at 5 ½ furlongs on the turf.

Trainer Graham Motion will send out two colts making their debut. Northern Aurora, a son of Uncle Mo out of the graded winner Unspurned, sold for $210,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale while Zatip, a son of Tapit out of the Grade 1 winner Zaftig, is a Wertheimer and Frere homebred. Full of Mischief, a son of Into Mischief who sold for $140,000 in May, makes his debut for Michael Trombetta. Godolphin LLC's homebred Holiday House, a son of More Than Ready, will also debut for trainer Michael Stidham.

The Stronach 5 heads to Gulfstream next for the eighth race, a 5 ½ furlong event for fillies and mares on the main track for $20,000 claimers. My Sarasota Star goes out first time off the claim for trainer Georgina Baxter. The 5-year-old mare has won four of 11 starts at Gulfstream and has placed first or second in four of five starts at the distance. Dem a Wonder, owned and trained by Rohan Crichton, drops a bit in company and gets Edwin Gonzalez in the saddle. Mastering Bela looks for her second consecutive victory for trainer Carlos Munoz.

The third leg of the Stronach 5, Laurel's ninth race, features $12,500 claimers going 1 1/8 mile on the turf. The wide-open event has Mokheef dropping in class for trainer Suzanne Stettinius. The 7-year-old son of Street Cry has four wins on the turf. Forest Boyce rides. Vincent Van Gogo has won three consecutive races, two of them over hurdles. Sandwiched between hurdle wins at Colonial Downs and Tryon is a victory in July at Colonial at a mile. Neil Morris trains. Donji makes his debut for trainer Zoe Valvo, who claimed him for $10,000 in August at Colonial.

The Stronach 5 heads west for the final two legs. Santa Anita's third race is a competitive event at five furlongs on the turf for 2-year-olds. Trainer Doug O'Neill will send out Del Mo and Beef Winslow. Beef Winslow, a son of Honor Code, gets blinkers and jockey John Velazquez after finishing seventh in his debut after a wide trip. Del Mo, a son of Uncle Mo out of the unraced mare No Lip Service, will make his debut with Ricardo Gonzalez in the saddle. Little Red Feather Racing's Elevado, fourth in his debut Sept. 11, goes out for trainer Mike Puype. The son of Street Boss brought $190,000 at auction in May. Trainer Peter Miller will send out second-time starters Roy C and Fight On Ron. Roy C was sixth on the turf in his debut at Del Mar in August while Fight On Ron was third Sept. 11 at Los Alamitos.

The fourth race at Golden Gate is where the Stronach 5 will conclude. Fillies and mares with a $5,000 claiming tag will go six furlongs. Always in Vegas gets the rail and returns after an 11-month layoff. Trainer Andy Mathis is 43-percent with horses coming in off a 180-day layoff or more. Arouse N Go finished second Aug. 27 first time off the claim by trainer Jonathan Wong. Brite Tan looks for her second consecutive victory.

Friday's races and sequence

Leg One –Laurel Race 8: (10 entries, 5 ½ furlongs turf) 4 :19 ET, 1:19 PT
Leg Two –Gulfstream Race 8: (8 entries, 5 ½ furlongs) 4:30 ET, 1:30 PT
Leg Three –Laurel Race 9: (12 entries,1 1/8-mile turf) 4:49 ET, 1:49 PT
Leg Four –Santa Anita Race 3: (10 entries, 5 furlongs turf) 5 ET, 2 PT
Leg Five –Golden Gate Race 4: (7 entries, 6 furlongs) 5:14 ET, 2:14 PT

Fans can watch and wager on the action at 1/ST.COM/BET as well as stream all the action in English and Spanish at LaurelPark.com, SantaAnita.com, GulfstreamPark.com, and GoldenGateFields.com.

The minimum wager on the multi-race, multi-track Stronach 5 is $1. If there are no tickets with five winners, the entire pool will be carried over to the next Friday.

If a change in racing surface is made after the wagering closes, each selection on any ticket will be considered a winning selection. If a betting interest is scratched, that selection will be substituted with the favorite in the win pool when wagering closes.

The Maryland Jockey Club serves as host of the Stronach 5.

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Motion, Stidham Look Ahead To Gulfstream’s New Tapeta Track

With the onset of year-round racing at Gulfstream Park this year due to the closure of Gulfstream Park West, a Tapeta track has been constructed to provide a measure of relief to the turf course while offering a varied racing program for horses of all abilities – and Graham Motion and Michael Stidham are hardly complaining.

The pair of highly respected trainers have enjoyed significant success while training and racing horses on all-weather surfaces, as well as on dirt and turf.

“I applaud Gulfstream for making that move. I'm a little surprised that more tracks haven't done it to have an alternative track, whether it be an alternative surface to run on or an alternative surface to run on when the races come off the turf,” said Motion, whose stable is based at Fair Hill, the Elkton, MD training center, where a Tapeta surface is available for training year round. “I think it makes so much sense, and I'm excited that Gulfstream has gone forward with this.”

Stidham, who also trains at Fair Hill during the good-weather months, has applied for stalls for Gulfstream's upcoming Championship Meet for the first time.

“I've always been a trainer who likes the synthetic. I trained at Arlington over 20 years, and we loved training on the synthetic. We're at Fair Hill in the summer, and we have a Tapeta track there,” Stidham said. “We like it, and we think it's a good addition.”

Gulfstream Park is on the verge of making Thoroughbred racing history – scheduled to become the first racetrack to conduct racing on dirt, turf and all-weather surfaces when the first races are run over the Tapeta track Thursday, opening day of the Fall Meet.

One of Stidham's most memorable successes on an all-weather track came in a maiden special weight race at Arlington on Sept. 18, 2010.

“A million-dollar earner that I had, Willcox Inn, broke his maiden on it, and he went on to be a graded-stakes winner. I'll never forget that his first start was at Arlington against another first-time starter, Animal Kingdom. Willcox Inn and Animal Kingdom both made their first starts in the same race at Arlington,” said Stidham, whose multiple graded-stakes winning son of Harlan's Holiday prevailed by 2 ¾ lengths over Animal Kingdom, who rallied after being caught in traffic. “It was kind of interesting to see both those horses go on to be top horses.”

The Motion-trained Animal Kingdom, of course, went on to win the 2011 Kentucky Derby (G1) after qualifying with a victory in the Spiral (G2) over Turfway's all-weather surface. The son of Leroidesanimaux also went on to win the 2013 Dubai World Cup (G1) after prepping with a second-place finish behind Point of Entry in the Gulfstream Park Turf (G2).

“I think he was a brilliant horse who's an exception to all the rules. I think it's fair to say he was a brilliant horse – he won the two biggest races in the world – the Dubai World Cup and the Kentucky Derby,” Motion said. “When you have horses of that caliber, they usually handle what you throw at them. He was an exceptional horse. The chances of me having another one like him in my lifetime are very unlikely.”

Motion said he expects lower-level horse to benefit most from the addition of a Tapeta surface to Gulfstream's racing menu.

“I think at the high level, I think it's harder to find horses that are as good on each surface. I think at the lower level, I think it's easier to move them between surfaces. It gives people with lesser horses another option,” Motion said. “It also doesn't beat up on the turf course so much. Hopefully, it protects the turf course and gives another option with some of the lesser horses that don't get the option to run on the grass normally.”

Although horses have been successful going from dirt to Tapeta and vice versa, Stidham and Motion agree that turf horses seem to be more comfortable running on the all-weather surface.

“It's not a fast and true guarantee, but it's a step toward getting the same feel they get on the turf. It's a more consistent feel and footing for a horse than the dirt, where they hit the dirt and it kind of gives away,” Stidham said. “Synthetic is obviously more like turf. It's similar but not the same.”

Upperline, a multiple graded-stakes winner on turf who also won over the all-weather surfaces at Keeneland, Arlington and Woodbine; and Tizaqueena, a graded-stakes winner and multiple Grade 1 stakes-placed on turf who also won a graded stakes on Arlington's all-weather track; both showed versatility on both surfaces for Stidham during the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Training on Tapeta is essential in determining how comfortable a horse is on the new surface.

“I don't think it's good for every horse. It's just like any surface – it's a trial-and-error thing where you work a horse on it and see how they handle it and see how they come out of it,” Stidham said. “That tells you how much they like it or don't like it. It's not for every horse.”

Motion routinely trains turf horses on a synthetic surface.

“I think most turf horses handle the transition to synthetic,” Motion said. “When I breeze horses at Fair Hill, I tend to breeze them on synthetic. They're just much more comfortable on it.”

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Training Begins Over Gulfstream’s New Tapeta Surface; Racing Scheduled For Next Thursday

Training on the newly installed Tapeta track got underway Friday morning at Gulfstream Park, where horses galloped on the all-weather surface that is tentatively scheduled to open for races next Thursday afternoon.

Jockey Chantal Sutherland said she was impressed with the Tapeta surface after galloping Leon McKanas-trained Thenorthremembers, a 5-year-old Violence gelding who captured a mile turf race for $25,000 claimers in his most recent start.

“Of all the Tapetas and Polytracks this is, by far, one of the better ones. This is beautiful. The horse went over it effortlessly. It was super-soft, and you could not hear horses beside you making any noise on it. My horse, I couldn't hear hitting the ground,” Sutherland said. “They've done a great job on it. It seemed all level and really soft, very forgiving for horses.”

Joe Orseno-trained Timmy M. was among the first horses to gallop over the track that replaced the outer turf course. Twice stakes-placed on turf during his juvenile campaign, Timmy M., a 5-year-old son of Morning Line, has been competing in allowance optional claimer and claiming races since a fourth-place finish in November of 2019 in the Millions Turf Preview at Gulfstream Park West.

“He just ran the other day and we thought he was in a good spot where he could win. He didn't run very well. I was actually going to sell him, but then I said, 'You know what? Tapeta – let's try him,'” said Orseno, who was pleased with how Timmy M. looked getting over the new surface Friday. “We're going to run him at the end of the month on it, but today was just galloping for the sake of galloping. I thought it was a good experiment.”

Although most horses will be entering unknown territory on the Tapeta track, the new surface provides trainers with hope that some of their horses will improve over the new surface.

“You might get that odd horse that will go right up the ladder on it. Everyone's hoping that they have the one,” Orseno said.

Kathy Mongeon-trained Anonymous Source, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly who won a $12,500 maiden claiming race on turf three starts back, was the first horse to step onto the Tapeta surface Friday with veteran exercise rider Walter Blum Jr. up.

“This felt amazing on the horse I was on. I think she really loved it,” Blum said. “People ask how do you know? When she first stepped on it, she was very light-footed, and when I went to pull her up, I could barely pull her up. She didn't even get tired and I let her clip around there finishing up.”

Blum has a wealth of experience galloping and breezing horses over all-weather surfaces.

“I rode Polytrack at Keeneland and Santa Anita. [The Tapeta surface] was so soft and nice. It had a lot of cushion to it, a lot of bounce,” Blum said. “I think it's going to be a fantastic surface once it works in in a week's time, once these guys are able to work on it, they're going to like this.”

Due to the closure of Gulfstream Park West, Gulfstream Park is scheduled to conduct racing year-round, prompting the construction of the Tapeta track. The new surface will provide a measure of relief to the turf course while offering a varied racing program for horses of all abilities. Gulfstream Park will become the first track to offer racing on dirt, turf and all-weather surfaces.

Thursday's program will mark the opening of the Fall Meet, during which races will not be scheduled on the turf course, which will undergo renovation for the Championship Meet. Six stakes, formerly run on turf, will be renewed on the Tapeta course.

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Yates Hoping To Honor Gil Campbell’s Memory In Saturday’s FSS In Reality

Trainer Michael Yates can't think of a more fitting way to honor the memory of Gil Campbell than to saddle Cajun's Magic for a victory in Saturday's $400,000 In Reality at Gulfstream Park.

“We'd love to win it in his honor, that's for sure,” Yates said.

Campbell, the prominent Florida breeder/owner who passed away Sept. 16 at the age of 91, and his widow, Marilyn, have had a long, long history of success in the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes, having been represented by 16 race winners in the lucrative series for juveniles sired by accredited Florida stallions.

Cajun's Magic, a homebred son of Cajun Breeze who campaigns for the Campbells' Stonehedge LLC racing stable, kicked off the 2021 FSS series with a victory over Dean Delivers, his Stonehedge LLC stablemate, in the $100,000 Dr. Fager at Gulfstream July 31 to give his highly respected and influential owners/breeders No. 16.

“He's gutsy; he's a trier; he's a game horse,” Yates said. “He's a very nice, solid horse.”

Cajun's Magic showed grit in his May 29 debut, in which he vied for pacesetting honors while racing between horses and fought back after losing the lead to finish just a half-length behind heavily favored Of a Revolution at five furlongs. He came right back to graduate by 4 ¾ lengths at 5 ½ furlongs before capturing the six-furlong Dr. Fager, in which he rated early before challenging Dean Delivers and prevailing from a stretch-long battle to win by a neck.

In the $200,000 Affirmed, the seven-furlong second leg of the FSS series, Cajun's Magic made a three-wide drive into contention but had to settle for a second-place finish, 3 ¼ lengths behind pacesetter Octane.

Cajun's Magic will face the two-turn test Saturday in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality, which will co-headline Saturday's Gulfstream Park program with the $400,000 My Dear Girl, the 1 1/16-mile FSS finale for fillies.

“It's a question for all of them. None of them have run that far yet,” Yates said. “He's been training well. He's had some nice, long, swift gallops, and I think he'll be ready.”

Jesus Rios has the call aboard Cajun's Magic, who will try to turn the tables on Arindel's homebred Octane.

The Affirmed victor will seek his third straight victory following a second-place finish in his June 14 debut at five furlongs. The son of Brethren overcame adversity to graduate in his second start at Gulfstream July 17, when he became fractious and unseated his rider before loading into the starting gate but went on to win by 1 ¾ lengths despite being checked leaving the backstretch. The Carlos David-trained Florida-bred did everything right in the Affirmed, in which he broke alertly from his rail post position to lead the way throughout the seven-furlong sprint.

“He came out of that race in really good shape,” David said. “He had to run his eyeballs out in that race. I gave him four days of walking. He's been able to have two breezes with no problems. So far, so good.”

Octane is expected to once again be a forward factor as he attempts to carry his speed around two turns in the In Reality.

“It will definitely be a challenge. It's his first time around two turns. So far, he has done everything right. I know he has tactical speed. We're not going to take that away from him,” David said.

Emisael Jaramillo has the return mount aboard Octane.

Arindel has also entered homebreds The Skipper Too, Clapton and Globes, all Juan Alvarado-trained sons of Brethren, in the In Reality. The Skipper Too graduated in his fifth career start Aug. 22, drawing clear by 1 ½ lengths after a stumbling start. Clapton followed up his second-start maiden victory with an eighth-place finish in the Affirmed, in which he stumbled at the start. Globes is a maiden who finished third in both of his starts.

Cristian Torres has been named on The Skipper Too; Chantal Sutherland has the call on Clapton; and Marcos Meneses is scheduled to ride Globes.

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Alex and JoAnn Liebling's Big and Classy, who improved on a fifth-place Dr. Fager showing to finish third in the Affirmed, will seek further improvement in the In Reality. The David Fawkes-trained son of The Big Beast, who raced evenly while finishing three lengths behind runner-up Cajun's Magic in the Affirmed, graduated by 5 ¾ lengths in his second career start.

“He worked in company with Noble Drama the other day and did excellent,” said Fawkes, who will also saddle multiple-stakes winner Noble Drama for Saturday's $125,000 FSS Wildcat Heir. “I was happy with his last race. Samy Camacho is riding him back this time, and I think he's got a huge chance.”

Big and Classy will make Camacho earn his mount fee.

“He doesn't want to sprint, No. 1, and No. 2, he's one of those kinds of horses you have to stay busy on. He'll relax under you too much. He's not the kind of horse that's going to take you unless you ask him, but he'll give you all he's got if you ask him.”

William Heiligbrodt, Corrine Heiligbrodt and Spendthrift Farm LLC's Cattin, a son of Neolithic trained by Ralph Nicks, and Amalio Ruiz-Lozano's Gold Special, a son of Jess's Dream trained by Angel Rodriguez, return in the In Reality after finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Affirmed.

Edgard Zayas has the call on Cattin, while Jonathan Gonzales will be aboard Gold Special.

Our Sugar Bear Stable Inc.'s One More Score and Champion Equine LLC's Fivefive Six Champ round out the field.

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