Sadler has pair for Santa Anita Handicap

ARCADIA, Calif. – Graded stakes winner Gift Box is not the only John Sadler trainee pointing to the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 9. Sadler said Wednesday that second-level allowance winner Campaign would join his more-accomplished stablemate in the 1 1/4-mile Big Cap.

“He’s a Curlin out of a Dynaformer mare – he wants to run all day,” Sadler said.

Campaign made his first start for Sadler on Sunday at Santa Anita, winning a 1 1/16-mile allowance race by neck while earning a 92 Beyer Figure over a track labeled sloppy. The figure was the highest of his 3-for-6 career.

“He [barely] got up,” Sadler acknowledged, “but he wants to run a mile and an eighth, a mile and a quarter. He’s a cinch in the Tokyo City at a mile and a half on dirt. He’s a grinder.”

The Grade 3 Tokyo City is April 14.

Nolo Contesto, the promising Sadler-trained 3-year-old maiden winner who scratched from the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis last Saturday when the track came up sloppy, will regroup.

“My first option to was to work [Tuesday] and try to supplement to the San Vicente, but I decided not to do that,” Sadler said.

Rather than trying to make the seven-furlong San Vicente on Feb. 10, Sadler said Nolo Contesto will resume workouts this weekend and will probably run in the the San Felipe here March 9 or ship for another stakes. The last-start maiden win by Nolo Contesto was flattered when runner-up Omaha Beach returned last Saturday to win a seven-furlong maiden sprint by nine lengths with a 90 Beyer.

◗ Notwithstanding a creditable third-place comeback last weekend in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes, Giant Expectations is not likely for the Santa Anita Handicap.

“I just think it’s too far for him,” trainer Peter Eurton said Wednesday.

Eurton said he thinks Giant Expectations is better at a mile or 1 1/16 miles, and might run in the $300,000 Essex on March 16 at Oaklawn Park or a race at Fair Grounds.

Giant Expectations, who earned a 96 Beyer in his comeback, has won four races and $1,199,100 from 18 starts.