Smokey Image likely to go in Joe Hernandez

ARCADIA, Calif. – Smokey Image, who was entered for Saturday’s Grade 3 Midnight Lute Stakes for sprinters, is likely to start instead in Monday’s $75,000 Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita, trainer Carla Gaines said.

The Hernandez Stakes is run at about 6 1/2 furlongs and is the main race on the New Year’s Day program.

Smokey Image has won 6 of 15 starts and earned $500,601. A 4-year-old colt, Smokey Image won his first six starts, including five stakes from 2015 into January 2016, but is winless in his last nine races. Smokey Image was third in the Cary Grant Stakes for California-breds at seven furlongs on dirt at Del Mar on Nov. 19.

After Monday’s program, racing resumes at Santa Anita for a three-day week from Jan. 5-7.