Rain forces postponement of turf stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – With a forecast of significant rain this weekend, Santa Anita officials have postponed two turf stakes scheduled for Saturday and Sunday to the Feb. 9 program.

The Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on Saturday and $75,000 Baffle Stakes for 3-year-olds on the hillside turf course on Sunday have been moved back a week. Rain is expected daily from Thursday through Sunday.

“With an extra week, they tell me we can have full fields,” said Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of Santa Anita’s parent company, The Stronach Group.

The absence of the Baffle Stakes on Sunday means the program will not have a stakes. The card is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Pacific.

Saturday’s program is led by the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes and the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/8 miles. The $200,000 San Pasqual has a projected field of seven – Battle of Midway, Dabster, Dalmore, Giant Expectations, McKinzie, Pavel, and Shivermetimbers.

Gift Box, winner of the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 26, will skip the San Pasqual for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on March 9, trainer John Sadler said Wednesday.

Saturday’s program has a mandatory payout in the 20-cent Rainbow pick six. The pool of new money could surpass $6 million.

McCarthy back on home turf

Super Duper Cooper has the difficult role of being the next runner for trainer Michael McCarthy on Friday at Santa Anita following City of Light’s win for the stable in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup last Saturday at Gulfstream.

City of Light, a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner, has been retired to stud. Super Duper Cooper has won 2 of 17 starts and earned $65,265. Super Duper Cooper runs in a $57,000 allowance race at a mile in Friday’s eighth race, the first start for the 5-year-old gelding since a second in a $16,000 claimer for nonwinners of three on Dec. 30.

Another start in a claiming race was impractical, McCarthy said Wednesday.

“I hope he can repeat his last race,” McCarthy said. “If he runs back in the same condition, there’ll be 20 claims for him.

“Hopefully, we get a little bit of rain to tighten the surface. He’s got an outside post.”

◗ Catapult, second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs and fourth in the $7 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational last Saturday at Gulfstream Park, is unlikely to start again until the spring.

Trainer John Sadler said Catapult will be pointed to the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf on May 27.

“We can give him some time now,” Sadler said.