Mandella looks to disrupt parade of Baffert, D'Amato winners

ARCADIA, Calif. – If a single weekday racing program can epitomize an entire season, it is the eight-race card Friday at Santa Anita – Bob Baffert on dirt, Phil D’Amato on turf.

They enter the week tied atop the trainer standings, they both run main contenders Friday, and throughout the meet they have steered clear of each other. All 25 Baffert winners have been on dirt, 23 of D’Amato’s 25 on turf. The pattern is likely to continue Friday.

D’Amato-trained French import Cash Equity makes his U.S. debut in the featured eighth race, a second-level allowance turf mile. In race 6, D’Amato starts two fully acclimatized Irish fillies in a first-level turf allowance. Late-runner Excelerina and front-runner Annaghlasa enter off sharp recent efforts on the Santa Anita course.

Baffert rarely runs on turf; only four of his 70 starters this meet were on grass. Stakes winner Hudson Ridge is an exception when he meets Cash Equity in the Friday finale. Race 4 on Friday, a dirt mile for maiden 3-year-old fillies, is in Baffert’s wheelhouse. He starts $750,000 Into Mischief filly Brocade, who stretches out as the potential pacesetter.

In addition to the D’Amato and Baffert contenders, trainer Richard Mandella starts two key runners Friday including likely favorite Micro Share in race 4 and sharp turf-sprint winner Anaconda stretching out in race 8 against Cash Equity and Hudson Ridge.

Races 4, 6, and 8 on Friday are the main events, beginning with the maiden mile. Micro Share finished a creditable third first time out, then went long and finished second to subsequent graded winner Adare Manor. Micro Share, who has not raced since Jan. 7, was entered in last Sunday’s Grade 3 Santa Ysabel.

“The maiden race had not gone for two weeks, and she trained too well not to run,” Mandella explained. He scratched Micro Share from the stakes when it was clear the Friday maiden race would fill.

“She’s training really good,” he said.

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Micro Share’s works include a Feb. 24 team drill with Forbidden Kingdom, subsequent runaway winner of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes. Micro Share will be ridden again by Mike Smith; her rivals include Brocade and Sweet Talked.

Brocade could make the lead stretching out and switching to John Velazquez. Baffert and Velazquez are the meet’s most productive trainer-jockey combination – 15 for 30. Sweet Talked finished fifth in her debut at a mile on turf and switches to dirt as a top contender.

Race 6 on Friday goes through D’Amato. Excelerina and Annaghlasa are the favorites in the 1 1/8-mile turf race.

“It’s a good one-two punch, they have opposing styles,” D’Amato said. “Excelerina comes with a big nice late kick. Annaghlasa has that great tactical speed.”

Excelerina scored a sharp maiden win in her U.S. debut at 1 1/8 miles; Annaghlasa won a maiden turf mile in January and recently finished second in an allowance mile. Annaghlasa could be loose Friday. Flavien Prat rode both Excelerina and Annaghlasa last out; D’Amato was asked if Prat decided which filly he preferred.

“At the end of the day, they let me choose. I put the guys on I thought would work respectively,” D’Amato said.

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Excelerina will be ridden by Prat; he and D’Amato are the meet’s second-most-productive combo, 11 for 32. Umberto Rispoli rides Annaghlasa.

Race 8 on Friday marks the U.S. debut of Cash Equity, purchased last fall for $284,000 at a horses of racing age sale in France. The stakes-placed gray won two allowance races in France, but earned only $14,529 in his initial allowance wins and is therefore eligible to the two-other-than allowance condition in California. The cutoff is $15,000.

“I like what I’ve seen in the mornings,” D’Amato said regarding Cash Equity, whose training-track drills have looked impressive on XBTV.com workout video. Beyond established form in France, expectations are he will appreciate firm ground.

“The agent that bought him said he’s a horse that really needed firm ground, and he was really never able to get that in France,” D’Amato said.

Cash Equity ran in a Group 1 last summer in France, but according to D’Amato “it was an absolute bog, and probably the worst race on his résumé.”

Cash Equity will race Friday on firm ground, with sharp works, and Prat. He should be tough to beat first start back. Cash Equity’s main rival is Mandella-trained Anaconda, who is stretching out from a decisive first-level allowance win at six furlongs.

“I like the way he sat back and finished sprinting. See if he can do it going two turns,” Mandella said. “No reason he shouldn’t.”

A lightly raced 5-year-old, Anaconda finished an excellent fourth in his only previous turf start in fall 2020. Sired by Pioneerof the Nile, he has won 2 of 4.

Hudson Ridge is a 4-year-old facing older winners for the first time. Other contenders in the allowance mile include Comradery, Tiz Plus, Count of Amazonia, and Evening Sun.