Sadler hopes Hard Aces pays dividends in Big Cap

ARCADIA, Calif. - The private purchase of Hard Aces in February has given owners Kosta and Peter Hronis and trainer John Sadler an intriguing outsider for Saturday’s $1 million Santa Anita Handicap.

Hard Aces won the minor Louisiana Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds on Jan. 17 for Dreamchaser Thoroughbreds and trainer Larry Jones. The Louisiana Handicap was the first stakes win for Hard Aces and put the 5-year-old horse on Sadler’s radar.

“We were looking for a horse for that race,” Sadler said of the Big Cap. “He’s an improving 4-year-old. He can run a distance on dirt. I like to be in that division.”

Sadler is banking on Hard Aces to provide an instant dividend. The Santa Anita Handicap pays $600,000 to the winner, $200,000 for second, and $120,000 for third. Shared Belief, the winner of two graded stakes at this meeting, will be a heavy favorite to win the Big Cap at 1 1/4 miles. Several runners are capable of finishing second, if Shared Belief runs as well as expected.

“When you get past Shared Belief, what have you got?” Sadler said.

The Big Cap has nine probable starters and is a rare handicap in an era when many leading races are run as weight-for-age races or under allowance conditions.

Shared Belief has been assigned top weight of 125 pounds, one more than California Chrome, who will not start in the Big Cap and is scheduled to make his next start in the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates on March 28.

Other Big Cap weights are Bronzo and Dynamic Sky, at 117 pounds; Patriotricandproud, 116; Hard Aces and Sr. Quisqueyano, at 115; and Catch a Flight, Cool Samurai, and Crimson Giant, at 114.

Private purchases are common for the Hronis brothers and Sadler. Saturday, they won the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes for 3-year-old fillies with Stellar Wind, who previously raced in Maryland.

She beat maidens at Laurel in December and arrived at Sadler’s barn in mid-January.

Stellar Wind made her stakes debut in the $100,500 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles and won for the second time in her three-race career. Ridden by Victor Espinoza, Stellar Wind ($16) rallied four-wide to win by 2 3/4 lengths over Light the City, the 2-1 favorite.

“She’s looked so good here in the mornings,” Kosta Hronis said after Saturday’s race. “She’s so fluid, she just floats over the track. She ran great and I thought her gallop-out was very strong.”

The win has put Stellar Wind on course for the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on April 4.

“That would be a logical spot at this point,” Sadler said. “I think she’s going to be better at a mile and an eighth, a mile and a quarter.”