Rock Your World to switch surfaces for Santa Anita Derby

ARCADIA, Calif. – Rock Your World, unbeaten in two starts on turf, may switch surfaces for a pivotal race in early spring.

A day after Rock Your World won his stakes debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Pasadena Stakes for 3-year-olds, trainer John Sadler said the expensive colt is a candidate for the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles on the main track on April 3. The Santa Anita Derby is the final major West Coast prep for the Triple Crown.

“We’ll be looking at the Santa Anita Derby,” Sadler said. “The spacing is good, the distance is good, and we feel he’ll thrive going even farther. We’ll see how March treats us.”

Rock Your World won his debut in a maiden special weight race at six furlongs on turf on Jan. 1. In the five-runner Pasadena Stakes, Rock Your World ($4.20) stalked pacesetter Commander Khai before taking the lead in the final furlong. Rock Your World drew clear to finish 2 1/4 lengths in front of Cathkin Peak, the slight favorite at even money and the winner of the Eddie Logan Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf in December.

Rock Your World, by Candy Ride, was purchased for $650,000 as a yearling and is out of Charm the Maker, a two-time stakes winner on synthetic surfaces at Del Mar and Hollywood Park in 2011 and 2013. Rock Your World races for Pete and Kosta Hronis and Michael Talla.

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Cathkin Peak is unlikely to race again until the $100,000 Singletary Stakes at a mile on turf for 3-year-olds on April 25, trainer Phil D’Amato said.

Cathkin Peak raced behind Commander Khai on the inside on the backstretch and emerged between Rock Your World and Commander Khai in the stretch under jockey Flavien Prat.

“He was on the bit and playing tug of war with Flavien and couldn’t get a trip through the stretch,” D’Amato said.

Sadler said Sunday that Cistron, winner of the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar in 2019 and three other stakes, will miss Saturday’s Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs in favor of the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes at six furlongs on turf on March 13.

Cistron has not raced since a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Daytona Stakes for turf sprinters last May.

Hernandez rides 2,000th winner

Jockey Juan Hernandez won the 2,000th race of his career aboard Bedrock ($17) in Sunday’s seventh race at Santa Anita. Hernandez has 1,999 wins in North America and one in Puerto Rico, according to Equibase statistics.

Through Sunday, Hernandez, 28, was second in the standings at the winter-spring meeting with 37 wins, trailing Flavien Prat by seven wins.

Gutierrez briefly hospitalized

Jockey Mario Gutierrez was briefly hospitalized Sunday after being unseated in a one-horse spill after the finish of the fifth race at Santa Anita.

Gutierrez was thrown from the first-time starter Squeaky Cheeky, who suffered a fatal injury to a foreleg while galloping out at the back of a field of seven.

Gutierrez, best known for winning the Kentucky Derby in 2012 and 2016, was taken from the Santa Anita turf course on a stretcher and underwent tests at a local hospital before being released early Sunday evening, according to his agent, Matt Nakatani.

Through Sunday, Gutierrez is sixth in the standings at the current winter-spring meeting with 16 wins.