Maxfield makes California debut in Santa Anita Handicap

ARCADIA, Calif. - Maxfield, the undefeated four-time stakes winner, will have his California debut and carry high weight of 124 pounds in Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.

Trainer Brendan Walsh confirmed plans for the 4-year-old Sunday. Florent Geroux will ride Maxfield in the Big Cap, which is run at 1 1/4 miles, a new distance for the colt.

“It will be a good test for him to go a mile and a quarter and in a Grade 1 as well,” Walsh said. “It would be nice to win a Grade 1 as an older horse.”

Owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing, Maxfield won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland as a 2-year-old in October 2019. Sidelined by injury that fall, Maxfield did not race again until a win in the Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs last May. By Street Sense, Maxfield emerged from that race with an injury that led to a layoff of nearly seven months.

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Maxfield is unbeaten in two starts at 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds this winter – the Tenacious Stakes on Dec. 19 and the Grade 3 Mineshaft Stakes on Feb. 13. Geroux was aboard for those wins.

On Saturday at Fair Grounds, Maxfield breezed a half-mile in 49.20 seconds.

The Big Cap field has nine probable starters, including Express Train, who won the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/8 miles by 3 1/4 lengths here on Jan. 30, and Independence Hall, who was third in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23.

Express Train will carry 123 pounds, while Independence Hall has been assigned 120.

Other weight assignments for expected runners are Idol, Kiss Today Goodbye, and Tizamagician, at 119; Coastal Defense and King Guillermo, at 116; and Mastering at 114.

Coastal Defense was sixth in the Pegasus World Cup, finishing 10 3/4 lengths behind Knicks Go.

The Big Cap is one of four graded stakes on what should be a strong 11-race program that includes the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf, the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles, and the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs.