Knapp keeps remarkable run going with three-win day

ARCADIA, Calif. – The first time trainer Steve Knapp won three races on a single day the milestone helped him clinch his first training title at the 2005 Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting.

Knapp finished with 16 wins, one ahead of Jeff Mullins and two clear of Bob Baffert. At the time, Knapp, then 50, was in his sixth year of training and en route to a career-best 65-win season.

The yearslong statistic is in jeopardy this year.

Boosted by the second three-day win of his career at Santa Anita on Saturday, Knapp has won 22 races from 96 starters this year through Sunday, good enough to rank fourth in the standings at the current Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. He is not far behind leader Phil D’Amato, who has 25 wins.

The success is not lost on Knapp, who went through a drought in the last decade, winning just 10 races in 2014. Since a 12-win season in 2017, the stable has steadily increased its win total, achieving 36 last year.

Better horses provided by a larger pool of clients has led to the success.

“For years, I didn’t have many horses, after 2008 when the economy crashed,” Knapp said Sunday. “If you have horses you can win races and you have to put them in the right spot.”

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Support from Terry Lovingier, one of California’s most high-profile owners and breeders, has helped boost the size of the stable.

“I’ve got new owners, and Lovingier has sent me 2-year-olds,” Knapp said. “I’ve got a better quality of horse.”

Knapp has always had a blue-collar stable with a concentration of claiming horses.

On Saturday, Knapp won a starter allowance on turf with Crimson Rose ($17.20), a $50,000 claiming race for maidens on turf with Thunder Run ($9.80), and a $12,500 claimer on dirt with Tizzy Twister ($5.20).

“It’s hard to do,” Knapp said of a three-win day.

Later on the program, Knapp’s Violent Runner finished second of four in the Grade 3 Desert Stormer Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs in her first start for owner Les Blake since being claimed for $40,000 on Feb. 5.

The stable has another stakes runner with Bus Buzz, a gelding co-owned by Lovingier, who is scheduled to start in the $150,000 Echo Eddie Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs on April 8 at Santa Anita.

Bus Buzz won his debut by eight lengths in a maiden race for statebreds at six furlongs on Feb. 4 and was second to Kangaroo Court in an allowance race for statebreds at six furlongs on March 4. Kangaroo Court is scheduled to start in the Echo Eddie.

Knapp is already plotting race strategy. He wants Bus Buzz to set the pace and challenge rivals to take him on.

“We’ll have him gate-schooled,” Knapp said. “His best asset is his speed.”

A win would be Knapp’s first in a stakes since Loud Mouth won the E.B. Johnston Stakes at Los Alamitos in September 2021.

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