While Cistron is away, others will play in San Carlos Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Before the top sprinter in California returns next Saturday, a modest field will race seven furlongs in the Grade 2 San Carlos on Saturday at Santa Anita.

Cistron, the circuit’s premier sprinter prior to an autumn setback that knocked him from the Breeders’ Cup, will make his first start of the season March 14 in the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes on turf.

Meantime, a placeholder will emerge Saturday in the $200,000 San Carlos. The six-runner field includes just one graded sprint winner, a horse that has not raced in nearly a year.

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Flagstaff and Roadster top the San Carlos, and they face sharp allowance winners Manhattan Up, a late-runner, and McKale, a front-runner. Also in the field are St. Joe Bay, who won the 2019 San Carlos but has not raced since, and Law Abidin Citizen, who makes his first start since winning the Grade 3 Longacres Mile last summer at Emerald Downs.

John Sadler trains Flagstaff, a minor stakes winner who missed by neck in a Grade 2 last out.

“He’s just a tough horse, he’s so solid,” Sadler said.

Flagstaff has won 4 of 10, and finished in the money in all nine of his sprints.

Sadler also trains St. Joe Bay, the San Carlos upset winner last March.

“He’s ready to go,” Sadler said. “We’ll probably run both. St. Joe Bay is more of a front-runner, and Flagstaff is more of a stalker.”

Both are second fiddle to Sadler’s top sprinter. Cistron won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar last summer, after a dominating win in the Grade 2 Kona Gold at Santa Anita. Those races were on dirt and the San Simeon is on turf.

“He runs well on turf,” Sadler said. “It’s a week later, and a good spot to get him started.”

Flagstaff could get a good trip in the San Carlos positioned right behind front-runners St. Joe Bay and front-runner McKale.

Bob Baffert trains McKale and route-to-sprint Roadster, the 2019 Santa Anita Derby winner whose best recent races have been at one turn. McKale and Roadster have opposite running styles but worked heads-up in a bullet 46.20-second team drill Monday.

Roadster’s runner-up finish two starts back in the Grade 1, seven-furlong Malibu Stakes stamps him as a contender in the San Carlos. He misfired last out in a Grade 2 route.

Manhattan Up looms a deep-closing upset candidate. Phil Oviedo trains the colt, who underwent minor throat surgery after suffering an entrapped epiglottis last summer at Del Mar.

“We fixed that, gave him time off, and now he’s a different horse,” Oviedo said.

Runner-up to McKale in a second-level allowance comeback, Manhattan Up scored a decisive last-to-first victory in his most recent start. Oviedo said Manhattan Up is “doing really, really well.”

“We’re going to find out how good he is,” he said.

Law Abidin Citizen also has trained well, though trainer Mark Glatt acknowledged, “Seven-eighths is a tough race for a horse off a layoff, and he’s probably at his best racing down the hillside.”