ARCADIA, Calif. – The richest turf sprint at Santa Anita, excluding Breeders’ Cup, shapes up Saturday as the most attractive betting race on the California Crown card. Eleven horses, led by East Coast shipper Big Invasion, sprint 6 1/2 furlongs on the hill in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes. The $750,000 purse is not far behind the $1 million BC Turf Sprint. “It’s like the Breeders’ Cup before the Breeders’ Cup,” Big Invasion’s trainer Christophe Clement noted. “It’s a lot of money.” It has a lot of contenders, none more prominent than Big Invasion, runner-up at Santa Anita last year in the BC Turf Sprint at five furlongs. Having returned to form, Big Invasion may start favored in the Eddie D, race 8 and the opening leg in a pair of two-day low-takeout wagers. A $5 double links the Eddie D to the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Sunday; a two-day $2 pick four links the Eddie D and race 9 California Crown to the Santa Anita Sprint and Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes on Sunday. Takeout for both wagers is 15 percent. Big Invasion’s first hillside try comes against hillside stakes winners Johnny Podres, First Peace, Air Force Red, King of Gosford, and Fast Buck; hillside allowance winners Boss Sully and Noble Reflection also entered, along with longshots Two Rivers Over, Eamonn, and Step Forward. It’s a solid field even without graded winners Motorious or Bran. Motorious will train up to the BC Turf Sprint at Del Mar, where he is 3 for 3. Bran missed a scheduled start this summer and did not enter the Eddie D. Big Invasion finished off board his first three starts this year. “Just a complete lack of racing luck,” Clement said. “He did not break well at Gulfstream, had a soft turf course at Churchill, and got no racing luck whatsoever in the Jaipur [at Saratoga]. He was boxed in all the way.” He subsequently returned to form winning the $150,000 Harvey Pack on Sept. 2 at Saratoga. A millionaire late-runner, the 9-for-20 Big Invasion is the class of the Eddie D. “The distance should be no issue, we’ve got a great rider” – Flavien Prat – “and the horse is doing really well,” Clement said. “We’re running him back a little bit quick” – in 26 days – “but he’s doing well.” So is Johnny Podres, a 7-year-old closer stretching out from two runner-up finishes racing five furlongs at Del Mar. The distance was shorter than he prefers. “Both times he had to go around everybody,” trainer Librado Barocio said. Factoring in ground loss, the most recent effort by 7-year-old Johnny Podres was among the fastest of his 9-for-40 career. He has sent Barocio all the right signals since. “He’s coming into it really good. He breezed last week really well. I told the rider to go 50-51, and he black-lettered,” Barocio said. Johnny Podres worked Sept. 14 in 48 seconds, the day’s fastest half-mile work. He followed with an easy half last week in 50.20. Johnny Podres is a two-time stakes winner on the hill, and owners Gary Hartunian and David Bernsen will consider supplementing him to the BC Turf Sprint for $100,000 if he runs well Saturday. The winner’s share of the Eddie D is $450,000. Umberto Rispoli rides Johnny Podres. Potential pacesetters in the Eddie D include longshots Boss Sully, Step Forward, and Fast Buck, while two leading contenders will be forwardly placed – First Peace and the field’s only 3-year-old, King of Gosford. First Peace scored a breakthrough win two back when he stretched to a mile for the Wickerr Stakes at Del Mar. He won in a blazing 1:33.81, then regressed to finish sixth as the favorite in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile. Not asked for speed, he lost ground throughout and was flat. “I don’t think he got a great trip,” trainer Mark Glatt said. “He didn’t run his usual race; he may have bounced off such a big effort. It’s a throw-out race.” First Peace shortens up Saturday. His five previous hillside starts netted two wins and three seconds. Glatt won the 2022 Eddie D with Whatmakessammyrun at $38. Mike Smith rides First Peace, who should be positioned in front of Big Invasion and Johnny Podres. King of Gosford faces older for the first time. He won his first three U.S. starts in turf sprints, including two hillside stakes before stretching out at Del Mar. He had a brutal trip finishing sixth as the Oceanside favorite, followed by a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 La Jolla Handicap. “We’ve been training him specifically, post-La Jolla, for this race down the hill,” trainer Phil D’Amato said. Facing older “might be a challenge, but a horse with his record and liking that distance, that goes a long way, especially down the hill.” D’Amato won the 2019 Eddie D with Pee Wee Reese. Antonio Fresu rides King of Gosford, who D’Amato said “breezed phenomenal” Sunday on the synthetic-surface training track. He went five-eighths in 58.80. Three-year-old Home Run Kitten won the Eddie D in 2014; 3-year-old Unbridled’s Note won in 2012. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.