Accelerate among workers for stakes-rich Big Cap card

ARCADIA, Calif. – Four candidates for Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap worked Sunday at Santa Anita – Accelerate, Curlin Road, Giant Expectations, and Mubtaahij.

Accelerate, the expected favorite in the $600,000 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles, worked six furlongs in 1:13.68 following the first race. The winner of the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 3, Accelerate worked alone through fractions of 26.08 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 49.50 for a half-mile.

Train John Sadler said he postponed the workout from Sunday morning to lunchtime after the track produced several quick times in the morning.

“He’s running a mile and a quarter, and this was a stamina drill,” Sadler said.

Owned by Pete and Kosta Hronis, Accelerate has run 1 1/4 miles once, finishing third behind Collected and Arrogate in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar last August. Collected was later second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar.

“When he ran in the Pacific Classic, we thought he got a little tired,” Sadler said. “It was a fast race.”

The other workouts were in the morning. Curlin Road, trained by Doug O’Neill, worked seven furlongs in 1:26.80 for his first start since a fourth in the Pacific Classic.

Giant Expectations worked five furlongs in 59 seconds, the fastest of 20 works at the distance. Giant Expectations won the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 26 but was ninth behind 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 27.

Mubtaahij worked six furlongs in 1:11.80. Mubtaahij won the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes here last October in his first start for trainer Bob Baffert but is winless in three subsequent starts, including third-place finishes in the Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes at Del Mar in November and the San Pasqual.

The Big Cap has eight probable starters, including Fear the Cowboy, Hoppertunity, Prime Attraction, and Top of the Game.

McKinzie, the winner of the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity in December, worked seven furlongs in 1:23.80 for Saturday’s Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles. McKinzie worked in company with a stablemate under jockey Drayden Van Dyke. Trained by Baffert, McKinzie won the Grade 3 Sham Stakes on Jan. 6.

Baffert had two other notable 3-year-old workers on Sunday – Solomini and Restoring Hope.

Solomini, second in the BC Juvenile last November, worked six furlongs in 1:11.40 for an expected start in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 17. The maiden winner Restoring Hope, a candidate for the $400,000 San Felipe, worked six furlongs in 1:11.60.

Restoring Hope could have his stakes debut in the San Felipe.

“I could run him to see where he fits,” Baffert said.

Edwards Going Left and City of Light, stakes winners at this meeting, worked in advance of Saturday’s Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs.

City of Light, unraced since winning the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds on Dec. 26, worked a half-mile in 47.80 seconds. Edwards Going Left, who won the Cal Cup Sprint on Jan. 27 and was second in the Malibu, worked five furlongs in 59.60 seconds.