santa anita park | Horse Racing Free Tips

Brinkerhoff’s ‘Best Horse’ Restrainedvengence Chasing Graded Win In City Of Hope Mile

Restrainedvengence, the “best horse” Val Brinkerhoff has ever trained, comes back in Saturday's Grade II City of Hope Mile on Santa Anita's turf in just over two weeks from his last race, a game head victory as the 4-5 favorite in the $200,000 Downs at Albuquerque, New Mexico over a mile and an eighth on dirt Sept. 19. It was the richest race of the meet.

“The City of Hope is a short field and he came out of his race super-good, never lost any weight and never missed a meal,” said Brinkerhoff, a former jockey who rode at the bush tracks in the northwest before becoming one of the hardest-working horsemen in the game just over a dozen years ago.

Brinkerhoff, who turns 64 on Oct. 19, still gallops his own horses.

“I think getting the horse there took more out of him than the race itself,” said Val, whose wife and dedicated assistant, Kelly, and Bobby Grayson Jr. own the five-year-old gelded son of Hold Me Back, who has an 8-3-1 record from 25 starts with earnings of $625,222. He was second by a head in the City of Hope last year.

“I missed some training on him here but he ran good enough to win despite being bumped through the stretch. He should be fit now because I missed a bunch of time after I ran him at Golden Gate (in the Grade III San Francisco Mile June 14) because of a foot issue, then I missed time because of the smoke from the fires here, but he's fine now.

“He's won stakes on three different surfaces: Tapeta, dirt and turf, so he's very versatile.” While he's never won a graded stakes, the Kentucky-bred has competed in 12 straight added money races and earned Beyer speed figures of 100 or more in three of them.

The City of Hope, race eight of 10 with a 12:30 p.m. first post time: Sharp Samurai, Juan Hernandez, 5-2; Restrainedvengence, Ruben Fuentes, 8-1; Majestic Eagle, Ricardo Gonzalez, 20-1; Royal Ship, Mike Smith, 4-1; Bob and Jackie, Heriberto Figueroa, 12-1; Blitzkrieg, Abel Cedillo, 4-1; and Mo Forza, Flavien Prat, 8-5.

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‘Riders Up’ Documentary Showcases North American Sports Bubble At Santa Anita Park

1/ST announced today the television premiere of “Riders Up”, a 30-minute documentary film showcasing Santa Anita Park, and how the company's premier Thoroughbred horse racetrack venue in Southern California successfully created North America's first sports bubble amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The original film, created and shot by the Hennegan Brothers, has been formatted for television and will air on NBCSN on Friday, Oct. 2 at 6:00 p.m. ET. A second airing of the documentary will take place on NBCSN on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 12:30 p.m. ET, preceding the live broadcast of the 145th Preakness Stakes on NBC at 4:30 p.m. ET.

“Riders Up” highlights how the horse racing community at Santa Anita Park came together within days of the original coronavirus pandemic lockdown to form a self-contained ecosystem that allowed hundreds of backstretch workers, jockeys and essential racing personnel to keep the horses safe and active while protecting themselves, their livelihoods and the community.

For more information on Santa Anita Park and to watch a preview of “Riders Up” please visit www.santaanita.com or on Facebook @SantaAnitaPark.

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Friday’s Stronach 5 Features $1,000 Guaranteed Pool, Turf Racing At Pimlico

Turf races from Pimlico Race Course and Santa Anita Park and a $100,000 guaranteed pool and industry-low 12-percent takeout highlight Friday's popular Stronach 5.

The opening leg of the Stronach 5 begins at 4:40 p.m. with Pimlico's eight race, featuring a dozen fillies and mares going five furlongs on the turf. The second leg, Santa Anita's fourth race, features 10 California-bred 2-year-old fillies going 5 ½ furlongs. After a stop at Golden Gate Fields for a six-furlong claiming event, the final two legs of the sequence feature turf races from Santa Anita and Pimlico.

The Stronach 5 helps to kick off a big weekend at Pimlico. The weekend races include Saturday's 12 stakes, seven graded, including Preakness 145.

Friday's races and sequence

Leg One – Pimlico 8th Race: (12 entries, 5 furlongs turf) 4:40 ET, 1:40 PT
Leg Two –Santa Anita 4th Race: (12 entries, 5 ½ furlongs) 5:10 ET, 2:10 PT
Leg Three –Golden Gate 3rd Race (7 entries, 6 furlongs) 5:30 ET, 2:30 PT
Leg Four –Santa Anita 5th Race: (8 entries, 1 mile turf) 5:44 ET, 2:44 PT
Leg Five –Pimlico 10th Race: (13 entries, 1 1/16 mile turf) 5:51 ET, 2:51 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 Stronach 5 In the Money podcast, hosted by Jonathan Kinchen and Peter Thomas Fornatale, will be posted by 2 p.m. Thursday at InTheMoneyPodcast.com and will be available on iTunes and other major podcast distributors

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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Four Graded Stakes Wins Net Flavien Prat Jockey Of The Week Title

After two graded stakes victories on Saturday and two on Sunday, Flavien Prat was voted the Jockeys' Guild Jockey of the Week for Sept. 21 through Sept. 27. The award is voted on by a panel of racing industry experts. This award is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 950 active riders in the United States as well as retired and permanently disabled jockeys.

Flavien Prat, who was the leading rider from the winter/spring meet at Santa Anita, began opening weekend of the Fall Meet where he left off by dominating the southern California riding colony. Prat had mounts in nine stakes races over the weekend, taking the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes with the Peter Miller-trained Get Her Number on Saturday as well as the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship with regular mount, United, trained by Richard Mandella. On Sunday, trainer Simon Callaghan gave a leg up to Prat who guided Harvest Moon to their fourth consecutive win in the Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes. He ended the weekend riding Cupid's Claw, trained by Craig Dollase to win in the Grade 3 Tokyo City Cup.

On Sunday, Prat summed up his weekend, “It's been a great weekend I thought. Yesterday we had some good runs with the two-year-old (Get Her Number) and also United. Today Simon Callaghan's filly (Harvest Moon) ran great.”

As for Cupid's Claw, Prat continued “I give all the credit to Craig (Dollase) I thought he made a great move going long on the dirt and it worked out well. You feel fortunate when you look at the program and you have such a great bunch of horses to ride all weekend long, it's a goal for every rider, I'm living the dream.”

Prat's weekly statistics were 7 wins, 7 seconds and 4 thirds from 24 mounts for a win percentage of 29.17, an in-the-money ratio of 75 percent and total purses of $708,100 for leading money-earner honors.

Prat out-polled fellow jockeys David Cabrera with two stakes wins at Remington Park, Glenn Corbett with three stakes wins at Prairie Meadows, Juan J. Hernandez who won two stakes races at Santa Anita including his first Grade I win with Mucho Unusual in the Rodeo Drive Stakes and Luis Saez who won two stakes races at Santa Anita.

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