Big John B skipping Charles Whittingham Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Big John B, the winner of the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap last August but last of eight in the Grade 3 Last Tycoon Stakes on April 25, will skip Sunday’s $200,000 Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita.

Trainer Phil D’Amato said he would prefer to run Big John B on the firmest turf course possible and is tentatively planning for a start in the $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Stakes at about 1 3/4 miles on turf June 28. D’Amato said he was discouraged by the final times on the turf course last weekend after approximately an inch of rain fell March 14-15.

“I’ll wait,” he said. “Last weekend, good horses were going the hill in 1:14 and change. I might wait for the San Juan Capistrano.”

The 6 1/2-furlong track record for the hillside turf course, set last May, when the course was considered to be too firm, is 1:10.73.

The Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes, run at 1 1/2 miles on turf, will not have a large field. The candidates include Ashleyluvssugar, unraced since a win in the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf March 21, and Ganesh, a Group 1 winner in South America in 2014 who was second in the Last Tycoon Stakes in his American graded-stakes debut.

Two other notable absences are Quick Casablanca and Si Sage.

Quick Casablanca, who won the 2014 Last Tycoon Stakes and was fifth in the Charles Whittingham Stakes last year, is recovering from a bruised foot, trainer Ron McAnally said. Si Sage won the Last Tycoon last month but will be kept to races at 1 1/8 miles or 1 1/4 miles, trainer Darrell Vienna said last weekend.