Santa Anita: CashCall 1-2 meeting again

ARCADIA, Calif. - Saturday’s Santa Anita program features three graded stakes.

Aside from the Grade 2 Strub Stakes, the top 3-year-olds Liaison and Rousing Sermon, first and second in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park in December, start in the $200,000 Robert Lewis Stakes over 1 1/16 miles.

The Grade 2 Lewis Stakes is a key prep for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7. Other candidates are Chips All In, Empire Way, Groovin’ Solo, I’ll Have Another, and Sky Kingdom.

Mr. Commons will be a heavy favorite in the $150,000 Arcadia Stakes over a mile on turf, facing a field that includes the European Group 1 winner Pathfork.

Now trained by John Sadler, Pathfork won the Group 1 National Stakes for 2-year-olds in Ireland in September 2010, but made only one start at 3, finishing seventh of 13 behind the unbeaten Frankel in the English 2000 Guineas last April.

Owned by Silverton Hill Partnership, Pathfork, a Kentucky-bred by Distorted Humor, arrived at Sadler’s stable in November, and was briefly considered for the Sir Beaufort Stakes on Dec. 26. Sadler passed the race in favor of the Arcadia.

“He needed more time to be settled,” Sadler said. “Now, I can go on with a good feeling.”

Other candidates for the Grade 2 Arcadia Stakes are Calimonco, a stakes winner at Del Mar last summer; Dewey’s Special, a stakes winner at Del Mar in 2009 who has not started since April 2010; Leroy’s Dynameaux, a stakes winner at Hollywood Park in 2010; and M One Rifle, who will make his turf debut and first start around two turns.

Trained by Bruce Headley, M One Rifle, the winner of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes in 2009, has won 5 of 18 starts and $518,002 on dirt and synthetic tracks. M One Rifle is winless in his last five starts, the most recent of which was a fifth in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes for sprinters on Jan. 21.