Santa Anita: Daytona puts Chips All In back on his favorite course

ARCADIA, Calif. – The revised landscape of Southern California racing may suit Chips All In, who starts in Saturday’s $100,000 Daytona Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita.

Chips All In has been running on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita and in turf sprints at Hollywood Park, which closed permanently last weekend. “I think he prefers the downhill to the flat,” trainer Jeff Mullins said.

Chips All In won the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes on the hillside turf course in September, and finished ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on the hillside on Nov. 2. In the Hollywood Turf Express over six furlongs on Dec. 8, Chips All In set the pace for the first half-mile before finishing in a triple dead heat for second, a half-length behind Boat Trip.[bc_video_id:312845:]

A 4-year-old colt, Chips All In has won 7 of 18 starts and $423,279. Mullins said Chips All In is most effective when able to race just behind the leaders.

“It all comes down to pace and how it sets up,” Mullins said. “He likes a certain kind of trip. He likes to be off the pace and make a run in the clear.”

Chips All In is part of a field of eight in the Daytona, which is run over about 6 1/2 furlongs. Mullins has entered another runner, the speedy Truest Legend, who could help set things up for Chips All In.

“He’s got one way to go,” Mullins said of the 7-year-old Truest Legend. “He’s fast.”

Aside from Chips All In, the Daytona field has four other stakes winners – Ain’t No Other, Gallant Son, Handsome Mike, and Unbridled’s Note.

Gallant Son, 7, won the Oakland Stakes over six furlongs on the synthetic main track at Golden Gate Fields on Nov. 16, his seventh stakes win. Unbridled’s Note was part of the triple dead heat in the Hollywood Turf Express.

Earlier this year, Unbridled’s Note was third in the Eddie D Stakes and fourth in the BC Turf Sprint. He won the 2012 Eddie D Stakes.

Ain’t No Other was fifth as the 7-5 favorite in the Oakland Stakes. Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Ain’t No Other was second in the California Flag Handicap for California-breds on the hillside turf course on Oct. 19.

El Commodore, second in an optional claimer at Hollywood Park on Dec. 6, and Next Speaker, claimed for $62,500 at Churchill Downs on Nov. 20, are the only runners in the field who have not raced on the hillside.

El Commodore, second in the Miami Mile Handicap at Calder in April, has been running in one-mile turf races. El Commodore could have been claimed for $80,000 on Dec. 6.

“A downhill race may be worth it the way he finishes a mile,” trainer Mike Machowsky said. “He was in for $80,000 because there was no other spot to run him. If someone wanted to write a check, that would have been a big check to write.”