Hammersly: How I'd play Santa Anita for Saturday, March 26
Short fields make it difficult to take too much of a stand early on Saturday's 11-race card at Santa Anita. The second half of the card, however, sees some big fields, and you may have a few opportunities to get that price. Here are a few runners who could be key for your wagers.
Race 6
AREWEHAVINGFUNYET comes off a couple ugly races, yes, but you can be a bit forgiving. Her fade job Jan. 14 came on turf against straight maidens. Then Feb. 19 she again faced straight maidens in a race washed off the turf, and stumbled badly at the start, nearly losing her rider. It’s nice to see no layoff since and now comes a pivotal class drop back in for a tag. Her three best efforts came when she raced for a tag, all higher than this. And while that was all on turf, there’s no reason at all she shouldn’t handle this main track.
You have trainer Richard Baltas who’s having a fine meet, and he gets his go-to rider, leading jockey Rafael Bejarano, to do the steering. With some good dirt works in tow and the drop she looks poised to fire.
Race 9
There are some tough cookies in this $32,000 mile claimer: Carlsbad Mountain, A Colt Following, Prohibition, Roman Tizzy, and Noble Kent. They can all figure in your wagers, but a longshot coupled with them gives you a shot at a nice payoff. RED BUTTON shows dull form, but his last couple starts came vs. tougher, and while he’s winless in four dirt starts he ran second the one time he ran on this dirt.
Red Button posted a 59.40 bullet workfor five furlongs here March 18 for trainer Bill Spawr to indicate he’s doing very well. Spawr isn’t one to really push down hard on his horses in the a.m., so a fast work usually means the horse did so on his own. And Spawr has been pushing the right buttons all meet as well, with a record of 8 for 37.
RACE 10
At first this race looks like a competitive low-level claiming sprint where a full field of 14 can make your head spin. However, upon closer examination there may be two horses here who are going so well that they can dictate the proceedings.
When you’re handicapping low-level claimers the focus should be more on condition and form than talent, and with TANNERSMYMUSCLE and TRIPSKI you get a couple guys who appears on top of their games.
TANNERSMYMUSCLE looked super blasting $12,500 foes here March 18. Yes, the drop is a little scary, but it’s nice to see a sharp guy like Ron Ellis wheel him back quickly (eight days), and usually once Ellis gets his runners on the right track they tend to stay there.
TRIPSKI, meanwhile, had done the bulk of his work on turf back East. He came here with David Jacobson, was fifth on turf Jan. 23, but then rallied to be third for $25,000 on turf Feb. 13. Jacobson dropped him to this level here Feb. 27, moved him to dirt, and voila! The horse jumped up with a big late run to win. Jeff Bonde saw fit to claim him (Bonde is 3 for his last 8 off a claim), and two bullet works since say he holds his edge and that Bonde may well have bought at the right time.