Big Cap Day fields coming together; card will have a mandatory payout
ARCADIA, Calif. – Full speed ahead next week at Santa Anita when racing resumes with a favorable weather forecast and six graded stakes including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and accompanying mandatory payout in the jackpot pick six on Saturday, March 4.
Racing was canceled Feb. 24-26 due to rain and track condition, but clear skies are expected when Santa Anita reopens for racing on March 3. The Big Cap card includes four graded stakes; the March 5 program will feature three stakes (two graded, including a pair postponed when racing was canceled this week.
The pick-six jackpot is $214,356. Barring a single-ticket winner March 3, the gross pool for the March 4 mandatory payout should soar well into seven figures. The jackpot pick six at Santa Anita is a 20-cent wager.
Nominations were released Friday for March 4 stakes. The dirt stakes are the Big Cap and Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds; turf stakes are the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile and Grade 2 Buena Vista for fillies and mares. Nominations also are out for the Grade 3 San Simeon, a turf sprint on March 5 that will include the postponed Grade 3 Santa Ysabel for 3-year-old fillies and Baffle Stakes for 3-year-old turf sprinters. Below is an early look at the stakes.
Defunded is expected to start favored in the $500,000 Santa Anita Handicap at a mile and one-quarter. Bob Baffert trains Defunded, a Grade 1 winner who finished second last out in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup. Baffert also trains Big Cap nominee Hopper.
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The 16 nominees include Grade 2 winner Newgrange, 2022 Big Cap runner-up Warrant, Midwest-based Grade 1 winner Proxy and locally based Grade 1 winner There Goes Harvard.
The Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, a mile and a sixteenth, for 3-year-olds, includes five trained by Baffert. National Treasure, third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Grade 3 Sham Stakes, is the most accomplished. Baffert nominees to the San Felipe include Carmel Road, Fort Bragg, Hejazi, and Mr. Fisk. In order to earn Derby qualifying points in the San Felipe (50-20-15-10-5), the Baffert nominees must transfer to another trainer by Feb. 28.
Carmel Road and Hejazi were nominated to the March 4 Gotham at Aqueduct with Tim Yakteen listed as the trainer.
The 21 San Felipe nominees include comeback Grade 2 winner Practical Move, runaway debut winner Geaux Rocket Ride, Grade 1-placed Skinner, along with stakes winners Chase the Chaos and One in Vermillion. The San Felipe is the prep for the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby on April 8.
The presumptive favorite for the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile is Hong Kong Harry, making his first start since winning the Grade 2 Seabiscuit on Nov. 26 at Del Mar. Hong Kong Harry is trained by Phil D’Amato, whose eight Kilroe nominees also include Balnikhov, Earls Rock, Gold Phoenix, Masteroffoxhounds, Motorious, Prince Abama, and Say the Word. Others nominated include Air Force Red, Du Jour, and Royal Ship. There were 21 nominated.
Nominees to the Grade 2 Buena Vista, fillies and mares at a mile on turf, include stakes winners Closing Remarks and Sweet Dani Girl, Grade 3 winner Quattroelle, Grade 1-placed School Dance and Group 2-placed European import Seisai. Fourteen nominated to the Buena Vista.
Entries for the March 4 Big Cap card will be drawn Sunday, Feb. 26 after Big Cap weight assignments are published that day.
The most significant of three stakes March 5 is the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel, postponed from Feb. 25. The undefeated Baffert-trained Grade 1 winner Faiza, absent from the Kentucky Oaks nominations, is expected to face Justique and Coffee in Bed in the Santa Ysabel. Peter Miller-trained Grade 1 winner And Tell Me Nolies, the top 2-year-old filly in California last season, is nominated.
Nominations for the Grade 3 San Simeon, a hillside turf sprint March 5, includes multiple graded stakes winner Brickyard Ride, unraced since May. Others include Kilroe nominee Air Force Red, Sumter and Whatmakessammyrun.
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