Ransom the Moon to get year started in Kona Gold Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Grade 1 winners Ransom the Moon and What a View are among the projected starters in graded stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.

Ransom the Moon, unraced since a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar last November, is part of a likely small field in the Grade 2 Kona Gold Stakes, a $200,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Trained by Phil D’Amato, Ransom the Moon won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar last July. Other expected runners in the Kona Gold Stakes are Bobby Abu Dhabi, Calculator, and Ten Blessings.

What a View, who won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile in 2016, has not raced since finishing seventh in the Kilroe Mile on March 10. A 7-year-old gelding trained by Kenny Black, What a View will face an easier field in Saturday’s Grade 3 American Stakes, a $100,000 race at a mile on turf.

The other likely runners are Colonist, Kenjisstorm, Mr. Roary, Ritzy A.P., and Sawyer’s Hill.