The first three months of 2026 were a quiet stretch for trainer Andy Mathis. A little too quiet.
From Dec. 28, 2025, the opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, through April 23, Mathis had one win from 31 runners, with eight second- and third-place finishers.
A three-win day at Santa Anita on April 24 and another win on April 30 has revived the season.
“Finally, things started to break the right way,” Mathis said on Thursday.
Rhetorical came out of his brilliant May 2 victory in the Grade 1 Turf Classic so well that connections tentatively plan to run him back June 6 in the $1 million Manhattan at Saratoga.
The Turf Classic marked Rhetorical’s first try over a distance as long as 1 1/8 miles, and for the first time in his nine-start career, he led. Rather than posing a challenge, the new circumstances elevated Rhetorical to a 3 1/4-length score and a career-best 107 Beyer Speed Figure.
Brad Cox did not notch his first outright Kentucky Derby win last weekend, but he still has a loaded stable and is hatching plans for his two Derby runners and a host of other high-level performers.
Cox, who won the 2021 Derby with Mandaloun after Medina Spirit was disqualified for a positive drug test, had to scratch Fulleffort from the Derby when the colt was diagnosed with a chipped ankle, leaving him with two Derby starters. Further Ado, the most tepid of favorites at 5-1, finished 13th, while Commandment, the 6-1 fourth choice, was seventh with a tough trip.
From her first workout in early March, the 2-year-old Quarter Horse filly Contentious has been a source of hype at Los Alamitos.
So far, the attention has been warranted. Unbeaten in two starts, Contentious is the fastest qualifier for Sunday’s $254,400 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity at 300 yards and is expected to be favored in a field of 10.
Trainer Vann Belvoir, who finished ninth in the standings at the recently-concluded Turf Paradise meeting in Arizona, will have a 39-horse stable in California this spring and summer.
The team arrived from Phoenix on Tuesday, three days after the end of the Turf Paradise meeting. Belvoir had 15 wins from 121 runners at Turf Paradise. Belvoir’s stable will be based at Los Alamitos.
Intrepido, winner of the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita last September, will be turned out at a central California farm in coming days after finishing 16th of 18 in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs last Saturday.
“He’s getting ready to go to the farm,” trainer Jeff Mullins said on Thursday morning.
Mullins did not specify how long Intrepido will be rested. The colt returned to Mullins’s stable at Santa Anita earlier this week and will soon be sent to Kingfisher Farm in Solvang, Mullins said.
“We want to let him settle,” Mullins said.
Monmouth Park will kick off its 2026 live racing season with an eight-race card Saturday, and Kelly Breen could not be more prepared to return to his home track. The New Jersey-based trainer, who turns 57 later this month, has been limited since undergoing neck fusion surgery in 2023, but he said he’s “energetically optimistic” about the upcoming season.
ARCADIA, Calif. – When the colt So Happy returned this week to Santa Anita after finishing ninth in the Kentucky Derby, he joined two others in a rare slice of racetrack trivia.
The month of May might be the first month ever in which three Santa Anita Derby winners – So Happy, Journalism, and Stronghold – will train simultaneously over the same track.
