Express Train among A-listers entered to run on Santa Anita Handicap card
The six graded stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday have been neatly packaged into two sets of three races through the 11-race program, the richest day of the track’s winter-spring meeting.
The stakes are worth a combined $2.45 million, with three Grade 2 races – the $200,000 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs, $200,000 Buena Vista Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf, and $400,000 San Felipe Stakes for 3-yeear-olds at 1 1/16 miles -- positioned from the fourth through sixth for national television coverage.
The three Grade 1 races – the $500,000 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares, $500,000 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf, and $650,000 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles – are the final three races on a card that begins at noon Pacific.
The Big Cap, the track’s richest race for older horses, drew a field of eight led by Express Train, the winner of two Grade 2 races this winter, and Stilleto Boy, who was third in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January.
Express Train carries top weight of 124 pounds, three more than Stilleto Boy and Warrant, who was third in the Grade 3 Louisiana Stakes at Fair Grounds earlier this year.
John Shirreffs trains Express Train for Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stable, a team that will have a busy late afternoon. In the Kilroe Mile, Shirreffs will saddle Beyond Brilliant, the winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar in November, for the Searings.
The Kilroe Mile drew 12, the largest field of the six stakes. Law Professor, winner of the Grade 2 Mathis Mile over runner-up Beyond Brilliant on dirt on Dec. 26, is part of the field, along with Count Again and Subconscious, the first two finishers of the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf on Feb. 5.
Envoutante, winner of the Grade 2 Falls City Stakes at Churchill Downs in November, and As Time Goes By, the easy winner of the Grade 3 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita in January, lead a small field of six in the Beholder.
The San Carlos drew nine, although American Theorem is also entered in the Big Cap. The speedy Brickyard Ride, winner of the 2021 San Carlos, starts from the inside post on the strength of two wins in stakes for California-breds since mid-January.
The Buena Vista Stakes will be a tricky betting race with a field of 11. Canoodling, upset winner of the Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes on Jan. 29, and Leggs Galore, winner of the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint on Jan. 15, are two of the nine stakes winners in the cast.
The San Felipe Stakes is a key prep for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles on April 9. The San Felipe Stakes drew seven, including Forbidden Kingdom and Doppelganger, who were first and fourth in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at seven furlongs on Jan. 29, and Cabo Spirit, second by 15 lengths to Messier in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 6.