Category: Blog Posts

Santa Anita Weekly Recap Oct 6

Santa Anita Recap for Thursday (10-3-19) Fast main track and firm turf course. Two front running winners at 6.5 furlongs on dirt. The winning turf course running styles were a front runner at 5.5 furlongs, a patient runner at one mile, a two stalkers at one mile (rail at 20 feet). Tiago Pereira booted home a pair. Evin Roman and Vann Belvoir teamed up for two wins. The Rainbow 6 pool was $86,939, and one winning ticket took down the entire jackpot to the tune of $144,893. Oct 3 Claims: Race 2 – Rattle ($16k, Reed Saldana). Race 3 – Muthhila ($25k, Bill Spawr). Race 5 – Poster Girl ($62.5k, Bill Spawr). Race 7 – Bella Figura ($50k, Alfredo Marquez). ————– Santa Anita Recap for Friday (10-4-19) Fast main track and firm turf course. Two front running winners at six furlongs on dirt. The winning turf course running styles were

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Santa Anita Horses To Watch List, October 9th

PERFECT RUSH (October 4): Two year old filly for John Sadler made start #2 in Friday’s third, a six furlong sprint on the main for maidens carrying a $50K price tag. Getting a lot of late money, and dropping down from a straight maiden race in her debut, she went off as the 3 to 2 choice in a field of five. She broke a tad slow under replacement rider Victor Espinoza, and he then hustled her up to the lead by the half mile pole in a quick opening quarter of 22.04. She still had the lead turning for home, then the rider took a hold of her and hand rode her in to win by three at the wire. She could have won by six or seven if he wanted. This daughter of Mineshaft out of a Hennessy mare was cut out to be a runner, so I’m

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Santa Anita News and Notes October 9th

• Santa Anita Park completed week two of their six week fall meet under clear skies and warm temps this past Sunday. The main track continues to play fair with a slight edge to early speed. The surface is still on the deep and tiring side but overall is a very safe racing surface. The brilliant sophomore colt Omaha Beach did make a dull racing surface look fast on Saturday, when he sizzled six furlongs in 1:08.79 to take down the Santa Anita Sprint Championship over another very quick sprinter, Shancealot. The turf course continues to play fair as well with a slight edge to off the pace runners. The surface is hard and firm and the times are very fast. Racing resumes on Thursday, this time with a five day race week as there will be Monday racing on Columbus Day. The single ticket jackpot of the 20 cent

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Santa Anita Park Weekly Update (Sept. 27-29)

Santa Anita Recap for Friday (9-27-19) Fast main track and firm turf course. Three front running winners on dirt (6.5f, 6.5f, 8.5f). The winning turf course running styles were a stalker at one mile, a patient runner at one mile, an inside stalker at five panels, and a stalker at one mile. John Velazquez and Bob Baffert teamed up for two grade one wins in the juvenile ranks (Bast, Eight Rings). Phil D’Amato saddled two winners including Pee Wee Reese in the Eddie D Stakes (G3). Chandelier Stakes (G1) Recap (9-27-19) – Winner: Bast ($2.40) It was not easy but overwhelming favorite Bast got the job done, and I thought she ran well. The race shape completely changed after expected front runner Leucothea bobbled at the start and threw the rider. The pace really failed to develop after that, and Comical had a short advantage over Been Studying Her and

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Santa Anita Horses To Watch October 1

MAGIC ON TAP (Sept. 27): Three year old colt for Bob Baffert made his 2nd start this year in a first condition allowance race at a flat mile on the main track Friday. Off at even money in a 9 horse field, he broke slowly from the two hole and was fifth into the clubhouse turn, 4 lengths off the leaders. John Velasquez kept him on the rail throughout and he made a move to get up to the third at the 3/8 pole, then fell back again at the ¼ pole. He tried to find a seam down the lane, but had to check and alter course, finally got through late but the race was over. He finished second beaten two at the wire. His next start will be his third off the long layoff, often a horse’s best race, and if he can get a clean trip, he’s

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Santa Anita News and Notes October 1

• The Great Race Place got underway on Friday for their six week fall meet, but it didn’t come off without a miscue, as a three year old colt broke down in mid stretch on Saturday for fatality #32 for the year. Unfortunately it happened right in front of the grandstand where the 12,000 attendees could witness it all. The colt was named Emtech, it was during the running of a $40,000 claiming race, and Steve Knapp was the trainer. Emtech entered into the race in good form and was in the process of climbing the claiming ranks, as Knapp had claimed him for $25,000 down at Del Mar on August 8th. The great record that Del Mar had, 7 weeks of racing without an afternoon mishap, seems light years ago now that this is the third in the month of September, with Los Alamitos having two fatalities earlier in

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Kentucky Oaks 2020 Report (9-30-19)

The Kentucky Oaks points race series for 2020 is officially off and running. Lazy Daisy won the Pocahontas (G3) at Churchill Downs on Saturday, Sept. 14, and Bast captured the Chandelier Stakes (G1) for Bob Baffert at Santa Anita Park Sept. 27. The next points race is the Alcibaides (G1) at Keeneland Oct. 4, followed by Belmont’s Frizette (G1) Oct. 6. Kentucky Oaks 2020 Points Race Recaps Pocahontas Recap (9-14-19) – Winner: Lazy Daisy ($16.40) Serengeti Empress won this race by a mile last year. In the first Oaks points race, Lazy Daisy and His Glory basically battled from start to finish. In the end, it was California shipper Lazy Daisy prevailing by a hard fought length and a quarter. 43-1 longshot His Glory was clearly second best beaten favorite Portrait was miles best of the rest in 3rd. This was a very well-spaced field. Blood Curdling was 9+ back

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Kentucky Derby 2020 Report (9-30-19)

It’s that time again! September means Derby fever. Well, not quite, but it is time to roll out my annual Kentucky Derby contenders list. Before meeting the first “exceptional eleven” of 2020, let’s look at some recent historical facts. Having experience as a 2-year-old is a major plus. Justify ended the Apollo jinx in 2018. Apollo won the Kentucky Derby in 1882. He was an unraced 2-year-old, and it took 136 years for another late blooming sophomore to break the streak. This remains a very strong angle. The last three Derby winners did not graduate until their 3-year-old seasons (Country House, Justify, Always Dreaming). All of the Derby winners from 2002-2016 graduated during their juvenile campaigns. During that 15 year run, starting with War Emblem and ending with Nyquist, 13 of those runners graduated by October 4. Orb and Smarty Jones were the exceptions. They graduated in November. From 2000-2003,

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Fast Figs All Time Results 111% Payouts in Turf Routes. See the full report.

Fast Figs Results Charts From June 3, 2019 through September 22, 2019 During our regular process of monitoring the results of Today’s Racing Digest’s speed, pace, and performance figures we decided to begin including the Fast Figs in our regular audit. It’s a number we’ve had for over 30 years but haven’t given it a whole lot of thought other then we knew it was a good quality number that could assist in narrowing down the field. While running our historical results scenarios we kept seeing an abnormally high return on profit. We’ve been developing and monitoring performance figures (ours as well as our competitors) for almost 50 years now and have never seen a figure consistently produce a straight profit over the long haul for multiple tracks. By nature I’m a skeptic and thought it was a fluke so we kept triple checking our results and expanding our data

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Santa Anita News and Notes September 19

• Santa Anita Park, which originally opened its doors on Christmas Day in 1934, kicks off its 23-day Autumn meet a week from Friday, Sept. 27. The track has invested more than $5 million for new suites in both the club house and the turf club, plus they installed a new state of the art LED infield video board to dramatically improve brightness and clarity. Santa Anita will host the world championship Breeders’ Cup for two days on November 1st and 2nd for the 10th time since the races have been introduced. Frank Mirahmadi, the voice of Monmouth Park, will return to call the races. The track will run a number of Breeders’ Cup prep races starting on Friday with a Grade 2 plus two Grade 1’s. • Stormy Liberal, who was voted champion turf horse in the country for 2018, will be in the lineup for the Eddie D.

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