Santa Anita schedules 41 stakes during Breeders' Cup meet

Santa Anita has scheduled 41 stakes, including the 13 races comprising the Breeders’ Cup Championships, for its six-week autumn meeting, which runs from Sept. 30 to Nov. 6.

The Breeders’ Cup races will be run Nov. 4-5. The schedule for the autumn meeting is strikingly similar to the 2014 meeting, the last year Santa Anita hosted the Breeders’ Cup races.

The meeting begins with 12 stakes over the first two weekends designed as prep races for the Breeders’ Cup. The Oct. 1 program includes five Grade 1 races that are part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering fees-paid berths to Breeders’ Cup races.

The $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes on Oct. 1, a prep for the $6 million BC Classic on Nov. 5, may include California Chrome, the winner of the $10 million Dubai World Cup in March. The Awesome Again Stakes is one of six Grade 1 races in early October that are preps for Breeders’ Cup races.

The main race on Oct. 2 is the $200,000 John Henry Turf Championship at 1 1/4 miles on turf, a prep for the BC Turf on Nov. 5. The Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship was not run in 2015 because of a shortage of stakes funds.

Santa Anita will have seven stakes on the undercards of the Breeders’ Cup programs, including four $200,000 races. The most prominent of those are two Grade 2 races on Nov. 4 – the Twilight Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf and the Marathon Stakes at 1 3/4 miles on dirt.

The $200,000 Goldikova Stakes for female turf milers is the main race on the Nov. 6 closing-day program.