Derby dreams mix with overriding tension in Santa Anita Derby

ARCADIA, Calif. – The joy of seeing the best West Coast prospects for the Kentucky Derby on a card filled with stakes and top-class runners is overlaid by the turmoil that continues to surround Santa Anita. The Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby on Saturday leads to the Kentucky Derby. The path for Santa Anita is far more opaque.

Saturday’s card features some of the best horses in the country, including the current favorite for the May 4 Derby, the champion colt Game Winner, who heads a small but terrific lineup of 3-year-olds in the Santa Anita Derby. The Santa Anita Oaks – this track’s major prep for the Kentucky Oaks on May 3 – includes multiple Grade 1 winner Bellafina and American Pharoah’s half-sister Chasing Yesterday. The Santa Anita Handicap, postponed four weeks owing to the suspension of racing here last month for 3 1/2 weeks, includes multiple Grade 1 winner McKinzie and the rapidly improving Gift Box.

Those are three Grade 1 races on a card that has five graded stakes and seven stakes overall among the 11 offerings beginning at noon Pacific.

It should be a time for celebration of the absolute best of the sport. But the atmosphere here also includes a tense mix of dread, uncertainty, and fear, as Santa Anita – owing to a spike in fatalities earlier in the meet – has become a piñata for entities both inside and outside the sport.

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Game Winner is one of several horses whose campaigns have been impacted. After winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last fall to complete an unbeaten campaign that brought him the division’s Eclipse Award, he was given a short break and then was scheduled to make his first start of the year in the San Felipe on March 9. But when that race was canceled and even training was suspended at Santa Anita, he was taken to Los Alamitos for a workout and then flown to Oaklawn Park for a division of the Rebel, which he lost narrowly to Omaha Beach.

Since returning to Santa Anita, he has worked twice, including a six-furlong drill on Monday that was the fastest of 11 at the distance.

“He’s a hearty, strong horse. He’s tough,” said trainer Bob Baffert, who holds the record for Santa Anita Derby victories with eight, including last year with subsequent Triple Crown winner Justify.

Game Winner drew the outside post in a field of six for the 1 1/8-mile race. That spot should afford he and jockey Joel Rosario an ideal trip. The one aspect of Game Winner’s portfolio that Baffert would like to see improve is his start, as he didn’t get away as smoothly as preferred in the Rebel.

“He was standing awkwardly and got away a half-step slow,” Baffert said.

Baffert also is sending out Roadster, who drew the rail. Roadster underwent throat surgery after finishing third to Game Winner last summer in the Del Mar Futurity. In his only start since, he won a first-level allowance on March 1, beating another Santa Anita Derby contender, Nolo Contesto.

“We’ve always liked the horse. Since Day 1, he’s shown signs of brilliance,” Baffert said. “His comeback race was off the charts. I think he’s going to be very competitive.”

Nolo Contesto, trained by John Sadler, is making his stakes debut. He did not have the cleanest of runs when finishing 2 1/2 lengths behind Roadster last time out. He had been ridden in his three previous starts by Rosario, but since Rosario opted for Game Winner, Joe Talamo takes over.

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Instagrand might have been favored over Game Winner and Roadster in the Del Mar Futurity last summer, but he was taken out of training after a pair of runaway victories and did not return to action until March 9, when he was third in the Gotham at Aqueduct, where Instagrand was sent owing to the tenuous state of affairs at the time at Santa Anita.

“We asked him to do a couple of different things, including ship and run in New York, and I thought he handled it fine,” said trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. “He’s trained real well since.”

The Santa Anita Derby will be Instagrand’s first try around two turns.

“You never know until they try it,” Hollendorfer said, “but he’s shown a great deal of ability and certainly deserves a chance to do it.”

Hollendorfer also entered the longshot More Ice when it looked like the field would be small. Rounding out the field is Synthesis, who owns only a maiden win in nine starts and was recently sold privately, moving from trainer Keith Desormeaux to George Papaprodromou.

The race is worth 170 points overall, including 100 to the winner, under the system used by Churchill Downs to determine the field for the Derby. It will be shown live on NBCSN during a two-hour telecast beginning at 2:30 p.m. Pacific that also includes the Wood Memorial from Aqueduct and the Blue Grass from Keeneland.