Hoppertunity to miss San Pasqual Stakes with foot abscess
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hoppertunity, a multiple stakes-winning millionaire, will miss Saturday’s Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita while undergoing treatment for an abscess in a foot. Trainer Bob Baffert said the abscess was detected Tuesday. Entries for the $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/8 miles for older horses were taken Wednesday.
Baffert said on Wednesday that there isn’t enough time to get Hoppertunity ready for the San Pasqual.
“He looks good today, but it’s too close,” Baffert said.
Baffert has two candidates for the San Pasqual – Irish Freedom and Mubtaahij, who were second and third in the Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 25. Mubtaahij won the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes here in September and was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 4.
Other contenders for the San Pasqual are Accelerate, who was second in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 26, and The Lieutenant, who will have his graded stakes debut after winning an allowance race at Los Alamitos in December.
There are four graded stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.
The leading race for 3-year-olds is the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. Shivermetimbers, fourth in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes on Jan. 6, is joined on the list of probable starters by Ayacara, Blame the Rider, Dark Vader, Inscom, Lombo, Pepe Tono, Peace, and Regulate.
Itsinthepost, the winner of the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes on Jan. 6, will be favored in the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes, a $200,000 race at 1 1/4 miles on turf. Trained by Jeff Mullins, Itsinthepost has won four Grade 2 stakes in the last year and was second in the 2017 San Marcos.
Roy H, the champion sprinter of 2017, is expected to lead a small field in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at six furlongs. Roy H has not started since winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 4.
