ARCADIA, Calif. – With one predictable result, and one far from expected, trainer Doug O’Neill won two of the six stakes on Santa Anita’s opening-day program on Thursday with an established sprinter and an older horse meeting expectations.

Raging Torrent was the 5-2 favorite in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs and ran to expectations, winning by 1 1/4 lengths for his fourth win in his last five starts.

Earlier on the program, J B Strikes Back, an 18-1 outsider, led throughout the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.

The National Thoroughbred League has not come close yet to meeting the grand ambitions the company announced when it was launched early in 2023, but to co-founder Randall Lane, the concept has been successful at its main goal.

“We want everyone to love racing as much as we do, and we think [the National Thoroughbred League] gives people a very easy entry point to that world,” Lane said. “When we’re creating fans, we’re creating fans for all of Thoroughbred racing. That’s ultimately the goal, where everyone succeeds.”

The interstates from New Orleans to Louisville hardly offer a driver a pleasing, scenic experience, yet Whit Beckman, making that journey Sunday, sounded ebullient. And why not? The day before, Beckman sent out first-time starting 2-year-old filly Simply Joking to win the $100,000 Letellier Stakes and 2-year-old filly Her Laugh to win the $100,000 Untapable.

Simply Joking got a 78 Beyer Speed Figure for her six-furlong win, Her Laugh a 74 after leading on a slow pace going a mile and 70 yards.

Wayne Catalano, 68, has trained a Kentucky Derby winner – just not when the horse won the Kentucky Derby.

Animal Kingdom as a 2-year-old came from the Florida farm where he was broken into Catalano’s stable at Arlington Park. The colt ran twice during 2010, winning a Keeneland maiden race, before his owner, Team Valor International, consolidated their stock with trainer Graham Motion. The following spring, Motion saddled Animal Kingdom to a Derby upset.

White Abarrio’s presence in Saturday’s Grade 3, $165,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes didn’t seem to scare anybody away from the entry box as he will have 11 opponents in the seven-furlong race.

Among the more intriguing challengers is Mufasa, winner of the Grade 2 Vosburgh at Aqueduct in September who finished 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 2 at Del Mar.

Trainer Bill Mott’s primary concern about Rocket Can, as it relates to a potential start in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, is the colt’s ability to succeed at 1 1/8 miles. It is the primary reason Mott was noncommittal to the Pegasus following Rocket Can’s 1 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Mark Glatt won his second training title in a little more than a year at the Del Mar autumn meeting that ended earlier this month.

Sustaining that success at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that begins Thursday will be difficult, he said recently.

Glatt won 14 races from 32 starters at Del Mar, clear of runner-up Phil D’Amato with nine wins.

Glatt won the training title at the 2023 Santa Anita autumn meeting. At the 2023-24 Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, Doug O’Neill led all trainers with 31 wins, two more than Glatt. D’Amato was third with 28 wins.

Do not be surprised if the biggest cheer emanating from the winner’s circle at Santa Anita on Thursday is for a man and not a racehorse.

For the first time, a race has been named in honor of retired Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr.

Santa Anita made the announcement earlier this month in conjunction with the details of its stakes program for the winter-spring meeting that begins Thursday and continues through June 15.