Proxy headed west for Santa Anita Handicap
Proxy finished second in the 2022 New Orleans Classic but is unlikely to have a chance to go one better this year. A tough-trip fifth last out in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, Proxy is headed away from trainer Michael Stidham’s winter base at Fair Grounds again for a March 4 start in the Santa Anita Handicap.
Proxy is 4-5-2 from 14 starts, half of which have come at Fair Grounds, where he’s 3-3-0. The Godolphin homebred by Tapit out of Panty Raid, by Include, notched his first Grade 1 win last fall in the Clark Stakes at Churchill. He has the pedigree of a stallion and a growing résumé for a stud career, and victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap likely would do more for his next career than one in the Grade 2 New Orleans Classic.
Proxy has worked twice since the Pegasus at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 28, including a half-mile drill Sunday in 48.20, third-fastest among 72 works at the distance. Quick time aside, Stidham said the drill wasn’t much more than maintenance, with something more serious plotted this weekend.
Stidham going into the Pegasus worried that post 1 would prove Proxy’s undoing – and was correct. Resenting a shower of surface kickback into and around the first turn, Proxy threw his head up and lost all position, doing little more than spinning his wheels at the back of the field until about the five-sixteenths pole. Guided outside and into the clear, Proxy turned in easily the fastest final furlong in the Pegasus and rallied into fifth. Connections will be hoping for more favorable circumstances in California than Florida.
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