Churchill's Alysheba Stakes one option for Melatonin

ARCADIA, Calif. – The options trainer David Hofmans envisioned for Melatonin looked far more enticing on Sunday morning than they had the prior morning, before Melatonin pulled off a 16-1 upset under Joe Talamo in the Santa Anita Handicap.

“We took a shot. It wasn’t the strongest field,” Hofmans said Sunday morning.

But because of the way Melatonin won the race – pulling away at the end to win by 4 1/4 lengths while earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 106 – Hofmans said Melatonin had earned the right to aim high again. Hofmans said he was considering the Grade 2, $400,000 Alysheba at Churchill Downs on May 6 or the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster at Churchill on June 18 for his next start, and later on this year has races like Del Mar’s Pacific Classic, even the Breeders’ Cup Classic, in his sights.

“Joe said he couldn’t believe how strongly he galloped out,” Hofmans said.

This was the first Big Cap win for Hofmans, but he’s no stranger to winning the biggest races. Among his victories are the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Alphabet Soup, who defeated Cigar in his final career start, and the 1997 Belmont with Touch Gold, who foiled Silver Charm’s Triple Crown bid.

Melatonin is owned by the Tarabilla Farms of Susan Osborne, who has been a client of Hofmans for 15 years. She currently has eight runners.

Effinex, who finished third as the favorite, is scheduled to fly to Florida on Tuesday. His trainer, Jimmy Jerkens, said Effinex in nominated to next month’s Oaklawn Handicap, “but everything is up in the air right now.”

Jerkens said he thought Effinex “ran great considering everything, the hives and all that.”

“I don’t know how much it affected him,” Jerkens said. “He wasn’t in any discomfort so we decided to go ahead and run. It looked horrible but he was feeling good otherwise. I thought he ran a decent race considering the time off.”

Donworth, who had a nightmarish trip in the race under Mario Gutierrez, was in good condition Sunday morning. His trainer, Doug O’Neill, took the blame for Donworth’s inability to settle during the race. “Bad training job,” he said.

O’Neill said he would discuss upcoming plans for Donworth with owner Paul Reddam, but his initial inclination was to point to the $1.25 million Charles Town Classic at 1 1/8 miles on April 23.

Santa Anita announced a crowd of 27,259 on Saturday, the figure enhanced by fans who went through the turnstiles multiple times to pick up a fleece blanket, which was given away with paid admission. The ontrack handle was $2.8 million. The overall handle for the card was $17.7 million. In 2015 – when the race featured the popular Shared Belief – the ontrack crowd was 26,134, and the overall handle was $22.1 million.

- additional reporting by Mike Welsch