Maldonado hopes to keep stakes roll going in San Carlos

ARCADIA, Calif. – In terms of stakes wins, jockey Edwin Maldonado had his best month in nearly a decade in February, winning three stakes at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita.

Merneith won the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes on Feb. 5 at Santa Anita with Maldonado aboard, followed a week later by Blackadder’s victory in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields. Last Saturday, Maldonado was aboard Alice Marble for a win in the restricted Wishing Well Stakes for female turf sprinters.

Maldonado last won three stakes in a month in the spring 2013.

February’s success has given the veteran rider the hope for continued success in coming weeks at Santa Anita.

Saturday, Maldonado is booked to ride Canadian Pride in the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs, one of six graded stakes on the richest program of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. The six stakes are worth a combined $2.45 million, slightly higher than the seven stakes worth $1.95 million on April 9, Santa Anita Derby Day.

Saturday’s program is topped by the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles, a race led by Express Train, a winner of two Grade 2 races this winter, and Stilleto Boy, who was third in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January.

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There are two other Grade 1 races on Saturday’s program worth $500,000 – the Frank Kilroe Mile on turf and the Beholder Mile for fillies and mares on the main track.

Through Sunday, Maldonado had 14 wins at the winter-spring meeting, good enough to rank tied for seventh in the standings with Umberto Rispoli. Maldonado has reached the position with 76 mounts, the second-lowest of any rider in the top 10. By comparison, leader Flavien Prat, who did not ride at Santa Anita over the weekend while in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, has won 57 races from 181 mounts.

For Maldonado, the position among the top 10 is not good enough.

“I’m very happy with what I’ve done,” he said. “But I’m not satisfied.”

Maldonado, who rode at Sunland Park on Sunday, is 39 and has been based in Southern California since 2010. He wants to be more active, while acknowledging that mounts can be difficult to find.

“I think you have to have a clear mind and stay positive,” he said. “This business can be mentally tough besides being physical. You have to stay positive and keep working.

“It’s a tough colony right now, and there aren’t that many horses. We have five- and six-horse fields.”

Canadian Pride will have his stakes debut in the $200,000 San Carlos Stakes after a career-best performance in an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs on Feb. 4. Ridden by Prat that day, Canadian Pride stalked the pace and won by 2 1/4 lengths in his second start following a five-month layoff.

Prat is expected to ride the Grade 3 stakes winner Cezanne in the San Carlos.

Canadian Pride races for Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stable and trainer Peter Eurton, who was guardedly optimistic over the weekend about the 5-year-old gelding’s chances.

“Can I get him to do two in a row,” Eurton said. “He needed the race before that. He was coming off a good layoff.”

Sometime soon, Maldonado has the ambitious goal of dethroning Prat, who has dominated the standings at Del Mar and Santa Anita in recent years. While that may be impossible at the current meeting, which continues through June 19, Maldonado could win a title at a shorter meeting, the way he did at the 2012 Hollywood Park autumn meeting when Rafael Bejarano was the standout rider in Southern California. The following year, Bejarano and Maldonado tied for the riding title at the Hollywood Park summer meeting.

“I’m shooting for the top, definitely,” Maldonado said on a recent morning between workouts. “This is the way I look at it – If you don’t think you’re a great rider and don’t think you’re the best, you have no shot.

“Everything is possible. What can be done once, can be done again. I did it in 2013 when Bejarano was leading rider for years.

“Everything is doable.”