ARCADIA, Calif. - There is a carryover of $97,983 in Sunday’s $2 pick six at Santa Anita, and the entire pool must be distributed.
Sunday is the final day of the track’s winter-spring meeting, which began in late December.
With the closing day, there are mandatory payouts in the early and late pick five, pick six, and super high five, as well as the Coast-to-Coast Pick Five and Sunset Six that link races between Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Champion Nitrogen will break from the rail in a field of nine fillies and mares for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap next Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
The field for the 1 1/16-mile race was drawn Saturday. This year, the Apple Blossom is a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who rode Sunday Silence to a win in the 1989 Kentucky Derby and has seven career victories in Breeders’ Cup races, rode a winner for the first time in nearly a decade at Turf Paradise on Wednesday.
Definitely Prbable, the 7-5 favorite, prevailed by a nose in a maiden race at a mile on turf with a purse of $17,000. The 63-year-old Valenzuela said on Thursday that the win left him overwhelmed.
“I didn’t realize I’d be so emotional,” Valenzuela said. “I had tears in my eyes. I was hoping the photographers wouldn’t catch that.”
The road to Kentucky Derby 152 has been filled with potholes thus far for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
Baffert, a six-time Kentucky Derby winner, has run seven 3-year-olds in nine points-scoring races toward the Kentucky Derby to be held May 2 at Churchill Downs. While he’s won two of those races, Plutarch, winner of the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes in February, was declared off the Derby trail with an injury. Plutarch, Baffert said, has recently begun jogging.
WHO’S NOT
Renegade was impressive drawing clear to a four-length victory in the Arkansas Derby and now is widely considered the favorite for the Kentucky Derby. David Aragona pegged Renegade at 7-2 in DRF's Derby Watch top 20, slightly ahead of Commandment (9-2), who somehow got his nose down on the wire over The Puma in Grade 1 Florida Derby. The Puma and Chief Wallabee, a half-length behind the top two in the Florida Derby, are co-third choices at 10-1.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Judging from trainer Doug O’Neill’s success at Santa Anita this year, a stakes win on Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby program is within expectations for the nationally prominent stable.
Through Sunday, O’Neill, 57, had a clear lead in the Santa Anita trainer standings at the winter-spring meeting with 36 wins, well in front of Mark Glatt (25) and Bob Baffert (23). O’Neill had 145 starters, the most of any trainer, but had won at a 24.8 percent clip.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – There are still some moving parts ahead of the Kentucky Derby on May 2, but many believe Renegade established himself as the early favorite for the race with his standout performance in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on Saturday.
“I do think we saw the Derby favorite run yesterday,” said Mark Casse, who trains Arkansas Derby runner-up Silent Tactic. “He ran by us at about the sixteenth pole.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Even though Commandment and The Puma hit the finish line as one at the end of Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby, trainer Gustavo Delgado and his son Gustavo Jr. were confident their horse, The Puma, had gotten to the wire first. It seemed the majority of those who watched the race, either on track or off, around the country did too.
INDIANTOWN, Fla. - Last year, after Far Bridge returned from a layoff to win the Grade 3 Pan American at Gulfstream Park, he shipped to New York to win the Grade 2 Man o’ War six weeks later.
With the New York Racing Association having moved the Man o’ War from the spring at Aqueduct to the fall at Belmont Park, Far Bridge will need a new plan for his next race.
Trainer Miguel Clement said Sunday he will consider the Grade 1, $1.5 million Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 2, or possibly train him up to the Grade 1 Manhattan at Saratoga on June 6.
