Jerry's Spirit puts win streak on the line in meet opener

There was a straightforward reason Jerry’s Spirit was claimed for $25,000 on May 3 at Santa Anita, the day the 4-year-old gelding won a six-furlong race by three lengths.

“He likes to win races,” trainer Tim Yakteen said. “We were looking for some action.”

Jerry’s Spirit won his third consecutive start at Santa Anita that day, a winning streak that may continue at Los Alamitos on Friday.

Jerry’s Spirit is part of a field of seven in the first race on the opening day of the track’s three-week summer meeting. The season runs through July 6 on a Friday-through-Sunday basis.

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Jerry’s Spirit’s streak includes a starter allowance at six furlongs on Feb. 16 and a $20,000 claimer for nonwinners of three at 6 1/2 furlongs on March 22.

Friday’s race is run at 6 1/2 furlongs, and Jerry’s Spirit, the mount of Armando Ayuso, will start from post 5. Jerry’s Spirit, owned by Southern California car dealers Joe Herold and Mike Caposio, is quick enough to lead but also effective as a stalker.

“If the inside [horses] go, he can sit there comfortably,” Yakteen said.

Grubauer, a five-time winner, is fast enough to set the pace from post 2. Trained by Tim McCanna, Grubauer was beaten a neck in an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs on May 26 at Santa Anita, a narrow loss that ended a four-race winning streak in allowance races at Pleasanton and Santa Anita from November to late January.

McCanna said Grubauer is well-suited to racing as a stalker even though the 4-year-old gelding has led at times.

“I’d like to see him just off the leaders,” McCanna said. “He’s better with a target. A lot of times he beats the gate.”

McCanna said that he and the partnership that owns Grubauer considered a race at the Del Mar summer meeting, which begins July 18, before entering Grubauer for Friday.

The allowance race will be the first start in a race for Thoroughbreds-only for All the Greats, who is trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer. All the Greats has won 3 of 4 starts this year racing against Thoroughbreds in 1,000-yard races at the ongoing Los Alamitos evening meeting. Those races also were open to Quarter Horses.

All the Greats, an odds-on favorite in each of his races, won his first three starts from late January to late March before finishing second in an allowance race June 1 after racing in traffic on the turn.

All the Greats is Hollendorfer’s first starter at a daytime Thoroughbred meeting since Los Alamitos in December.

Hollendorfer has raced only at Del Mar and Los Alamitos in California since the summer of 2019, following his eviction from Santa Anita by track management after four horses in his care were euthanized as a result of injuries sustained during racing or training that year.

In 2022, Hollendorfer and 1/ST Racing, the parent company of Santa Anita, reached a confidential settlement in a lawsuit that Hollendorfer filed pertaining to the company’s summary banishment of his stable from Santa Anita.

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