Neat to make California debut in Kilroe Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. - What difference is a new racetrack for Neat, the 4-year-old colt expected to be the lone shipper in Saturday’s Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita?

Last year, Neat started seven times at six different tracks, winning four stakes for 3-year-olds on turf. The assignment on Saturday will be more difficult, as the $300,000 Kilroe will mark Neat’s career debut against older horses and his first start in a Grade 1.

Neat will be ready, trainer Rob Atras said on Sunday.

“We got a few breezes in at Fair Grounds, and it wasn’t long before he began breezing good,” Atras said. “Every week, he has really progressed. I know this will be a tough spot. We’re hoping he will be that kind of horse.”

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Neat, who races for the Red White and Blue Racing partnership, was a $200,000 yearling purchase. He has won 6 of 11 starts and earned $914,130. The highlight of his 2024 season was a win in the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes at a mile at Saratoga last August.

Neat was beaten in his final two starts of the year – a third after a wide trip in the $1.49 million Gun Runner Stakes at Kentucky Downs last September, and a disrupted journey when seventh in the Grade 3 Bryan Station Stakes at a mile on turf at Keeneland last October.

“We gave him a little freshening” after the Bryan Station, Atras said. “He had a troubled trip. He’d been going for a long time and the break seemed to have done him well.”

Jose Ortiz has been booked to ride Neat in the Kilroe, Atras said. The Kilroe is the richest turf race of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, and the field is expected to include the recent graded stakes winners El Potente, Formidable Man, and Mi Hermano Ramon.

El Potente won the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf on Feb. 1. Mi Hermano Ramon and Formidable Man were graded stakes winners at the Del Mar autumn meeting in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap and Grade 1 Hollywood Derby, respectively, and were fourth and last of 12 in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25.

Neat will be the 40-year-old Atras’s first career starter at Santa Anita. Last November, Atras had his first starter in California, winning the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes with the 2-year-old Chasing Liberty at Del Mar on Breeders’ Cup weekend.

“That was exciting, one of my best memories in racing,” he said.

Atras has attended races at Santa Anita in the past. On Sunday, it was unclear whether he could break away from obligations at his stable at Fair Grounds to attend the Kilroe Mile.

“I’m hoping I can make it,” he said.

The Kilroe Mile is one of four graded stakes on Saturday’s program, the richest in the month of March at Santa Anita. There are two other $300,000 races: the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on dirt and the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt for 3-year-olds. The list of turf races includes the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes, a $200,000 race at a mile for fillies and mares.

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