ARCADIA, Calif. - The upset by Debonair Joe ($55.60) in Thursday's Malibu Stakes has led to a pick six carryover of $195,156 for Friday's eight-race program.
The pick six on Friday covers the third through eighth races.
In the third race, Heat Haze, a recent English import trained by Bobby Frankel, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite. She is a half-sister to Banks Hill, the 2001 Eclipse Award winner as outstanding turf female.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Debonair Joe pulled his second stakes upset of the month in Thursday's $200,000 Malibu Stakes, giving Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone her first win at Santa Anita.
Debonair Joe ($55.60) ran seven furlongs in 1:22.40, closing from 10th on the backstretch to deny pacesetter Total Limit. American System, who fought with Total Limit for the lead throughout, finished third, a half-length behind the winner.
ARCADIA, Calif. - With four major stakes wins from coast to coast in the last 11 months, You has been a star 3-year-old filly for trainer Bobby Frankel.
She will start as the strong favorite in Saturday's $200,000 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita, the final race of her remarkable season.
"She's had a hard year," Frankel said. "This is her last start until the spring."
ARCADIA, Calif. - Peace Rules is certain to be favored when he tries for his second consecutive stakes win in Saturday's $75,000 Hill Rise Stakes on turf at Santa Anita.
Coming off a front-running win in the $200,000 Generous Stakes at Hollywood Park on Nov. 30, Peace Rules is a standout in the one-mile Hill Rise, in which he faces six rivals.
MIAMI - Asked to name a Jonathan Sheppard-trained long-distance handicap star, most people would think of With Anticipation. But Sheppard has another long-winded stakes winner in his barn - Rochester, possibly the one to beat in Saturday's wide-open W.L. McKnight Handicap Saturday at Calder.
The Grade 2, $200,000 McKnight is one of four handicaps on the Grand Slam II card. The others are the Grade 2, $200,000 La Prevoyante, the Grade 3, $100,000 Fred Hooper Jr., and the $100,000 Stage Door Betty.
NEW ORLEANS - They've traveled from afar to reach Fair Grounds by Saturday for the $100,000 Woodchopper Handicap, the last turf stakes restricted to 3-year-olds, but none has journeyed longer than Better Talk Now. Yet his 20-hour van ride from Maryland earlier this week can't compare with his terrible trips this summer.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Bruce Levine admits he is feeling pressure heading into Saturday's Grade 3 Gallant Fox Handicap at Aqueduct with Coyote Lakes seeking his third consecutive victory in the 13-furlong marathon.
"I go over him every day," Levine said. "I had a bunch of sick horses in the barn, but he seems all right. Trying to win this race three times in a row, I feel it. I never felt it before."
Sunland Park, NM - Three-year-old Star Smasher, owned by the local group known as 'The Crew of Brew', turned the tables on his four-year-old rival Ciento by winning Thursday's $75,000-added City of Sunland Park Handicap. In their first meeting on December 8 in the Johnie Jamison Handicap Ciento had been the impressive winner and this race sets the scene for a meet-long rivalry and not only between horses. Robert Cappellucci is the trainer of Star Smasher while his son, Dick, trains Ciento.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The weather was sunny and mild, the mountains loomed over the track, a touch of snow was atop the ridges to the east, a large, enthusiastic crowd was on hand, D. Wayne Lukas looked like Santa Claus in his bright, red sport jacket, 90-year-old Mary Roney was in attendance, and the soothing tones of Trevor Denman cascaded over the public address system. In Southern California, it was starting to look a lot like the day after Christmas.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A win by Scrimshaw and a loss by Ghostzapper in a six-furlong allowance race for 2-year-olds on Thursday at Santa Anita produced opposite emotions for rival trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Bobby Frankel.
Scrimshaw caught Zayed in the final strides to remain undefeated in two starts, allowing Lukas, who trains him, to dream of the future. But a fourth-place finish by the heavily favored Ghostzapper left Frankel furious for not scratching the colt and running him instead in an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on Saturday.
