Collected tunes up for San Antonio; Smith to ride

ARCADIA, Calif. – A solid seven-furlong workout by Collected on Tuesday morning at Santa Anita solidifies the Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up as the early favorite for the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes on Dec. 26, opening day of the Santa Anita winter meet.

Mike Smith will ride Collected for the first time in the $300,000 San Antonio. He replaces Martin Garcia, who has relocated to New York.

Collected, who worked by himself at 6:45 a.m. under Drayden Van Dyke, was given a work time of 1:25.60 by track clockers. The racing surface at Santa Anita is producing relatively slow times. Collected looked strong through the wire in his work.

“He always works great,” trainer Bob Baffert said, adding that he came out of the Breeders’ Cup “really well.”

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Collected, 8 for 12 overall and 4 for 4 at Santa Anita, is using the 1 1/16-mile San Antonio as a prep for the Grade 1, $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park.

Baffert said Tuesday that Hoppertunity’s status for the San Antonio is undetermined. Others expected for the $300,000 race include Accelerate, Giant Expectations, Prime Attraction, Top of the Game, and Win the Space.

Accelerate was scheduled to work Tuesday at 7:45 as he tries to rebound from a ninth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Trainer John Sadler said he had an alibi for his uncharacteristically poor effort as the third betting choice.

“He came out with a sore foot, and then ended up popping a quarter crack,” Sadler said. “So, we’ve got all that fixed up. He had a bullet work [Dec. 12] on a slow, heavy track.”

Accelerate worked six furlongs in 1:14 last week.