Vanden Berg settles in, runs first horse of meet Friday
ARCADIA, Calif. – The turmoil caused by the 2021 closure of Arlington Park has led Chicago trainer Britanny Vanden Berg to relocate 20 horses to California this winter.
Vanden Berg’s team arrived on New Year’s weekend and will have its first runner when the 6-year-old gelding Current starts in a $40,000 claimer at a mile on turf on Friday at Santa Anita.
Vanden Berg, 31, had a career-best year in her third season of training in 2021, winning with 60 of 194 runners. Extending that success on a tougher Southern California circuit will be difficult, she acknowledged last weekend.
“It will be fun to see how they fit,” she said. “We were looking for a spot we could run year-round.
“We’re hoping to claim a lot.”
Travel incentives provided by Santa Anita, notably financial aid for shipping and a longstanding bonus system that rewards success with race-ready horses brought to California from other circuits, were factors in the decision to relocate.
Vanden Berg had nine horses claimed from her stable at Hawthorne and Turfway Park in November and December.
“We were looking to disperse a few and it worked out in our favor,” she said. “We lost a few we liked, too.”
Last weekend, Vanden Berg had settled into her stable at Santa Anita enough to give many of her horses training time.
“We gave the horses a little sneak peek of the mountain views,” she said. “They seem to like that more than Chicago.”
The stable includes the seven-time turf winner Sniper Kitten and Big Sport, who won 8 of 10 starts on the Chicago circuit last year, mostly in starter-allowance races.
Jockey Chris Emigh, Vanden Berg’s husband, has the mount on Current. Emigh, 50, has won more than 4,200 races. He rode here briefly in the winter of 2005-06, with 1 win from 26 mounts.