Gold Phoenix gets top billing in star-studded John Henry cast

A marquee promoting big days at Del Mar or Santa Anita should have the following in bright lights: Also starring Gold Phoenix.

Gold Phoenix has won the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap on Pacific Classic Day at Del Mar the last three summers. He won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita on Big Cap Day in 2023, and was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita last November.

On Saturday, Gold Phoenix will be favored to win the seventh stakes of his career in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at 1 1/4 miles. The $750,000 John Henry is part of a 10-race program highlighted by the Grade 1 California Crown, a $1 million race on dirt.

The purse of the John Henry Turf Championship was raised from $200,000 in recent years by Santa Anita’s parent company, 1/ST Racing, in an effort to give Saturday’s program a higher national profile. There are music and food promotions at Santa Anita designed to lure a sizable ontrack crowd.

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The John Henry Turf Championship goes as race 7 and drew a strong field of 11 that includes Dicey Mo Chara and Balnikhov, who were a close second and third in the Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on Aug. 31; and There Goes Harvard, the winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles on dirt in 2022.

Dicey Mo Chara set the pace in the Del Mar Handicap and may do the same on Saturday in a race that lacks a confirmed front-runner.

For Gold Phoenix, the lucrative John Henry Turf Championship is a warm-up race for the BC Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 2. Gold Phoenix secured a fees-paid berth to the BC Turf with his win in the Del Mar Handicap.

Immediately after that race, there was talk of not racing Gold Phoenix until Nov. 2. The discussion changed in recent weeks, according to trainer Phil D’Amato.

“He came out of the race in good shape,” D’Amato said. “He’s one of these horses that ran the last quarter-mile. I don’t think it was too terribly hard on him. I thought it would be a good idea to run.”

Owned by the partnership of Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stables, and Marsha Naify, Gold Phoenix has been in this situation before. In 2023, Gold Phoenix was third by a neck in the John Henry Turf Championship and later 10th in the BC Turf at Keeneland. Last year, Gold Phoenix was fifth by four lengths in the John Henry Turf Championship, and fourth by two lengths at 51-1 behind the European favorite Auguste Rodin in the BC Turf at Santa Anita.

The Europeans are expected to have another potent team for the BC Turf in November, making the lucrative John Henry Turf Championship even more appealing for Gold Phoenix’s owners.

D’Amato has four of the 11 entrants in the John Henry Turf Championship, also starting Balniknov, Divin Propos, and Rockemperor.

Others in the field include the former claimer Big Blue Line, who won an allowance race at a mile on dirt at Saratoga in August in his last start; and Seven Wonders, who finished first in an allowance race at Del Mar on Sept. 1, but was disqualified and placed sixth for interference.

Balnikhov is winless in eight starts on turf at Santa Anita, but has never started at 1 1/4 miles on the course.

“I think the equalizer is distance,” D’Amato said. “We found the other day that he relishes running longer distances.”

Divin Propos, a winner of allowance races at 1 1/4 miles and 1 3/8 miles on turf since arriving from France earlier this year, will have his graded stakes debut on Saturday.

“He’s a horse on the improve,” D’Amato said. “He can sit 1, 2, or 3 and have a nice kick.”

Seven Wonders, trained by Peter Eurton, showed the same tactical style when he finished first by 3 1/2 lengths on Sept. 1 even though he shifted to the inside at the half-mile pole and fouled a rival.

Eurton admits he is taking a chance with Seven Wonders.

“For $750,000, I can think of 750,000 reasons,” Eurton said. “We’ll give it a shot. I like the distance for him.”

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