Sadler can make Big Cap history on Saturday

ARCADIA, Calif. – John Sadler, trainer and lifelong racing fan, may achieve Santa Anita racing history on Saturday.

If Gift Box wins the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Sadler will become the first trainer to win the historic race in three consecutive years. Many trainers have won two consecutive runnings in this century, notably Bobby Frankel, Doug O’Neill and Bob Baffert. Baffert won the race three times in four years with Game On Dude in 2011 and 2013-14.

Gift Box, who won the Big Cap last April, will start in Saturday’s race at 1 1/4 miles as a leading contender along with Midcourt, the winner of the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes on Feb. 1. Gift Box won the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes on Dec. 28, a race in which Midcourt was third.

With a purse of $600,000, the Big Cap is the most lucrative race for older horses of the meeting.

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“It’s a race I’ve grown up with, being a local guy,” Sadler said. “You have the [Santa Anita] Derby for the 3-year-olds and the Big Cap for older horses. Those are the top two races of the meet.”

Sadler, 63, saw his first Big Cap in 1970, the year Quicken Tree won. He won the race for the first time in 2018 with Accelerate, who like Gift Box is owned by Sadler’s principal clients, Pete and Kosta Hronis.

Sadler could have sent Gift Box to the $20 million Saudi Cup last Saturday, but thought the 7-year-old horse would be better suited to a domestic campaign in 2020.

“What we’re doing is what we think is right for this horse,” he said. “If the decision is to go for the higher purses, it’s Saudi every time.

“If you go there and don’t run well, what good does it do you? I think it’s better to keep him home. Hopefully, we’ll be rewarded.”

The Big Cap has eight probable starters, including Two Thirty Five and Combatant, who were second and third in the San Pasqual; Endorsed, fourth in the 2019 Travers Stakes; and Hofburg, who was third in the 2018 Belmont Stakes. Combatant is owned by Hronis Racing and trained by Sadler.

There are three other graded stakes on Saturday. The multiple stakes winners Got Stormy, a mare, and River Boyne lead the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf.

The Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-olds is a key prep for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 4. Thousand Words, unbeaten in three starts, and Storm the Court, the champion 2-year-old male of 2019, head a small field.

Flagstaff, owned by Hronis Racing and trained by Sadler, is a leading contender in the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs.