Santa Anita sprint a battle of speedsters

ARCADIA, Calif. – The action will be on the lead in Friday’s fourth race at Santa Anita, where the upstart Seeking the Sherif, a winner of three consecutive starts since February, and Super Ninety Nine, a stakes winner at Oaklawn Park last year, meet in an optional claimer for sprinters.

Both Seeking the Sherif and Super Ninety Nine are quick.

Seeking the Sherif, claimed for $12,500 last December, has won 3 of 4 starts for owners Steve Zolotas, Sabina Romo-Zolotas, and Tim Goodwin. The 5-year-old has earned $92,800 since being claimed.

“This has been a dream claim,” trainer Ron Ellis said. “He’s really confident right now. He’s a good horse out of the gate. He jumps out and takes command.”

Seeking the Sherif has won 5 of 7 starts. He was sidelined earlier in his career with a condylar fracture that required surgery, Ellis said.

Friday’s race over 6 1/2 furlongs is the longest of Seeking the Sherif’s career, and a slight concern for Ellis. The horse’s most recent start came over six furlongs May 16, and Seeking the Sherif led by 1 1/2 lengths with a furlong remaining and won by three-quarters of a length.

“It’s the first time he’s tried it, so I don’t know what to think,” Ellis said of the distance. “He was getting caught [last time], but he wasn’t fully extended.”
Edwin Maldonado, who has been aboard for Seeking the Sherif’s four starts this year, has the mount. Seeking the Sherif, by Officer, drew post 3 in a field of six, one stall to the inside of Super Ninety Nine.

Super Ninety Nine makes his first start since a third to Goldencents in the Santa Anita Derby in April 2013. Trained by Bob Baffert for Tanma Corp., Super Ninety Nine has won 3 of 7 starts and earned $374,480 in a career highlighted by a win by 11 1/4 lengths in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes over 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Park in February 2013.

Super Ninety Nine later was fifth in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn before the Santa Anita Derby. He did not start for the remainder of 2013.

“He didn’t need any surgery,” Baffert said. “He was just jarred up. He’s ready to run. He’s working really well. He’s sharp right now.”

The other runners are Rock Me Baby, unraced since a sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in November; Midnight Transfer, who won the San Pedro Stakes in 2012; the Baffert-trained Castaway, who won a division of the 2012 Southwest; and Forward March, who was eighth in the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes on turf April 13.