Brad Free's Santa Anita Preview for Thursday, April 4, 2019

Both turf sprints scheduled for the hillside course Thursday at Santa Anita will be run under new conditions. Race 1 is now a six and one-half furlong dirt race; race 8 is now a mile on turf. Below is a preview of the card, prior to scratches …

Race 1 – Sir Eddie (5) is favored in this Cal-bred maiden race; the surface switch is not an issue. He reproduced the top figure of his career, 81 Beyer, three back in his most recent start on dirt. What is a problem is his penchant for finishing second. In 13 starts, Sir Eddie has six seconds, three thirds.

Sir Eddie’s trainer is Dan Blacker, who took heat from the Santa Anita racing office last week for stating on social media the frustration in pointing horses to races in the condition book that are not used. On March 31, @dan_blacker tweeted in a reply: “Today they got 17 entered in the 6th race in the book and didn’t use it.”

Race 2 – Monydontspenitself (3) drops from $25k claiming to $12.5k in this seven-furlong sprint. How do you interpret a steep dropper? It depends on how much you trust the trainer. In this case, the trainer of Monydontspenitself is Mark Glatt. So, let’s just say this – 3-1 program odds is good enough.

Race 4 – Lomu (1) was only prepping in his solid third-place debut. The knock is it is always tough to stretch out successfully from a single sprint, and 5-2 odds is no great bargain. That is why the 5-year-old maiden Caribbean (5) will be on this handicapper’s ticket. He has been running relatively fast on dirt.

Race 6 – An interesting first-level allowance turf mile for 3-year-olds includes a host of contenders. This handicapper’s one-two selections are Vantastic (1) and first-time gelding Rijeka (6), the program favorite. However, Order and Law (5) worked very well for his California debut. His program price is a generous 5-1.

Race 7 – It is possible that Pig Iron (10) is overrated by this handicapper, who tabbed the maiden-claiming sprinter as “best bet” on the card. At his program price of 5-1, Pig Iron is still worth a swing while moving from the rail to the outside post and going up in class from maiden-20 to Cal-bred maiden-50.

Race 8 – Moonshine Annie (1) is the program favorite in this Cal-bred allowance for fillies and mares; the switch from six and one-half furlongs to one mile is not a major issue. Moonshine Annie finished second last out in a similar Calbred N1X turf mile. Wandering Patrol (2) has never run long, but the comeback filly has trained very well for her comeback.

First post Thursday, 1 p.m.