ARCADIA, Calif. - When it comes to Itsinthepost, trainer Jeff Mullins is no longer concerned about surface as he is distance. So while Itsinthepost, a 7-year-old gelding, was making just his third career start on dirt in Friday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Marathon Stakes at Santa Anita, the fact it was at 1 3/4 miles was truly all that mattered.
“It’s all the distance,” Mullins said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Thais, who was entered in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita to act as a pacemaker for probable favorite Sistercharlie, was scratched on Thursday based on the recommendation of Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board.
“She was placed on the vet’s list as unsound,” Arthur told Daily Racing Form Thursday, declining to get into specifics of the unsound area.
A very interesting pick-five sequence greets players on the first day of the Breeders' Cup starting in race 5, with a couple of races seemingly wide open and others - at least on the surface - that appear to be more manageable. Here's one way to play it, featuring a couple of singles as well as a pair of wide spreads.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The first sighting of Team Coolmore and the Aidan O’Brien-trained Breeders’ Cup contingent was the highlight of training hours on another unseasonably cold morning Thursday at Santa Anita, where the temperature was in the low to mid-40s throughout much of the five-hour session. One could also smell a hint of smoke from the wildfires burning in the area, which don’t figure to have any impact on the two Breeders’ Cup cards here this weekend.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita has been good to trainer Chad Brown over the years. This is the place where he won his first Breeders’ Cup race, back in 2008. He’s now won 12 Breeders’ Cup races, six of them at Santa Anita.
“I like it out here,” he said Thursday morning while watching his horses train in advance of this year’s Breeders’ Cup on a bright, sunny morning.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Led by English Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, top Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien has another formidable team in three races on Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup program. He could very well add to his totals as one of the event’s leading trainers.
Approaching this year’s Breeders’ Cup, O’Brien had 12 Breeders’ Cup wins, tied with Chad Brown in third place on the all-time list. D. Wayne Lukas led all trainers with 20 wins, followed by Bob Baffert with 15.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jeff Bloom has all the appearances of a personable human being, but Bloom’s hackles rise when asked about the decision late in the spring of 2018 to make a trainer change with Midnight Bisou. It’s old news, Bloom says, ancient, calcified history long since settled. The move from the esteemed California trainer Bill Spawr had everything to do with an East Coast campaign Bloom envisioned for Midnight Bisou. Because Bloom has a heart, it must have been a tough choice. A year and a half later, no one could say it wasn’t the right choice.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stick around long enough as a trainer – and Richard Mandella has been around long enough to get a plaque in the Hall of Fame – and you’ll deal with plenty of setbacks.
“It’s part of a trainer’s life. We deal with it here every day,” he said at his Santa Anita barn.
But nothing before has compared to what Mandella navigated this year with Omaha Beach, whose defection from the Kentucky Derby just days before he would have started as the favorite probably moved to the top of a list Mandella would rather not compile.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Carlos Martin believes the last time he was in California was in 1987 when his father, the trainer Jose Martin, ran Groovy in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Hollywood Park. Only 18 years old at the time, Carlos Martin took Groovy’s fourth-place finish as the 2-5 favorite in the Sprint hard.
“I think I stayed in the hotel room for about three days,” Martin said. “It was just sad the horse got beat. He was such a great horse.”
