Tag: Santa Anita Park

Irish-bred Ocean Road won the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes in May. The Gamely is one of 10 Grade 1 stakes on Santa Anita Park's 2022-23 Winter/Spring Meet stakes schedule. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Santa Anita Park Announces Robust 2022-23 Stakes Schedule

Santa Anita Park’s 2022-23 Winter/Spring Meet offers 93 stakes races — 58 graded and 10 of those Grade 1s — during what is one of the longest racing meets of the year. Santa Anita’s Winter/Spring Meet runs Dec. 26-June 19. “We feel there is something for everyone in this stakes […]

Santa Anita Park owns the record for largest Breeders' Cup crowd: more than 118,000 in 2016. The annual fall racing festival returns to Santa Anita for the 11th time in 2023. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Breeders’ Cup Returns to Santa Anita Park in 2023

The Breeders’ Cup World Championships announced Thursday it will bring the Breeders’ Cup back to Santa Anita Park for a record 11th time in 2023. That milestone for the Southern California track also signifies the 40th running of the Breeders’ Cup. The 2023 Breeders’ Cup will take place on Friday, […]

Becca Taylor is a nose away from being undefeated in nine races. She heads a seven-horse field in the Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes at Los Alamitos. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Becca Taylor Ready for Los Alamitos Close-Up at Great Lady M Stakes

Los Alamitos shows off one of its main features during its two-week Los Angeles County Fair Thoroughbred meet Monday with the Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes. The 6 ½-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 3-year-old and up headlines a nine-race Fourth of July card at the small Southern California […]

Santa Anita Park's just-concluded Winter/Spring Meet was its safest on record. (Image: Santa Anita Park)

Santa Anita Park Enjoys Safest Winter/Spring Meet in its History

Santa Anita Park ended its six-month Winter/Spring Meet as the safest racetrack in North America among its large-track peers, with three racing fatalities from more than 4,800 starters during the just-completed 76-day meet. Only four years removed from a nightmarish season in which 30 horses died during racing or training, […]

Neige Blanche won the first of three closing-day stakes races at Santa Anita Sunday. That was her third stakes victory of the Southern California track's 2021-22 Winter/Spring Meet schedule. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Record Performances Headline Santa Anita Park’s Winter/Spring Meet

A training record for Phil D’Amato, a breakout riding season for Juan Hernandez, and a memorable first stakes win for the incomparable Flightline highlighted Santa Anita Park’s 2021-22 Winter/Spring Meet. The iconic Southern California track finished its 76-day meet Sunday with an 11-race card featuring three stakes races. One of […]

Santa Anita Park's training titlist Phil D'Amato sends Rijeka out in the Grade 3 San Juan Capistrano, Santa Anita's traditional closing day feature. Rijeka is one to watch in what could be a $3 million Rainbow Six. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Santa Anita Ends Long Meet with $3 Million Closing Day Rainbow Six

Santa Anita Park sends its 2021-22 Winter/Spring Meet into the history books on Sunday with a Rainbow Six pool expected to hit $3 million. The 20-cent Single Ticket Rainbow Pick Six comes with a mandatory payout on the Southern California track’s closing day. With that closing day, mandatory payouts come […]

Absolutely Zero won her May debut as an odds-on favorite. She's the favorite running against colts in the Fasig-Tipton Futurity. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Two Doug O’Neill Juveniles Provide Hopeful Glimpse Into Next Spring

Horseplayers looking for a sneak peek at some potential 2023 Kentucky Derby prospects and one Kentucky Oaks prospect need look no further than Santa Anita Park’s 11th race Saturday, where you’ll find Doug O’Neill charges Tahoma and Absolutely Zero. It won’t take much effort to find the pair. They’re the […]

Carpe Vinum won a one-mile turf allowance Friday that gave trainer Phil D'Amato the Sant Anita Park Winter/Spring Meet training record. (Image: Benoit Photo)

D’Amato Seizes Santa Anita Park Meet Training Record With Carpe Vinum

Phil D’Amato already has the Santa Anita Winter/Spring Meet training title wrapped up. Now, he has the single-season meet record for victories to go along with it. D’Amato won his record 57th race of the 74-day Winter/Spring Meet Friday, sending Carpe Vinum to a 2 ¼-length victory in the day’s […]

Santa Anita offers 26 stakes races -- 15 graded -- during its Autumn Meet that begins Sept. 30. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Santa Anita Park Creates Front-Loaded Fall Stakes Schedule

Santa Anita Park’s Autumn Meet gets off to its traditional fast start in terms of stakes and Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series races. The Southern California track is offering 11 stakes — seven of those graded — over the first weekend of the 18-day meet. All told, Santa Anita will card 26 […]

Smooth Like Strait and Umberto Rispoli won last year's Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile. The 5-year-old horse returns with Flavien Prat aboard as the 4/5 favorite for the Memorial Day race at Santa Anita Park. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Smooth Like Strait Looks Like the Right Fit in Shoemaker Mile

That Smooth Like Strait is the 4/5 morning line favorite for Monday’s Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita Park is understandable on several levels. Thirteen of them, to be precise. That’s the string of graded stakes races the 5-year-old turf terror brings into the second of Santa Anita’s three […]

Going Global is an 8/5 favorite in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes, which makes her a tempting single for Santa Anita's Rainbow Six jackpot wager. That pool is expected to hit $5 million. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Santa Anita Park’s Rainbow Six Expected to Hit $5 Million Monday

Santa Anita Park officials expect Monday’s 20 cent Rainbow Six jackpot to hit $5 million as horseplayers pile into the wager on a mandatory payout day. Nobody hit the wager Sunday, which requires holding a single ticket with six winners. That sends a $588,484 carryover into Monday’s 10-race Memorial Day […]

Stilleto Boy won the Grade 2 Californian on the lead. The question is: can he win the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup in the same fashion? (Image: Benoit Photo)

Hollywood Gold Cup: The Race Where Someone Wins Their First Grade 1

The Hollywood Gold Cup is the race movie stars attended and the race won by a movie star – Seabiscuit, who won the inaugural Gold Cup in 1938. It’s the race won by Triple Crown champions Affirmed and Citation, who retired after winning the 1951 edition. That race made him […]

Jessica Pyfer and Bally's Charge were all alone down the stretch of Saturday's Snow Chief Stakes at Santa Anita. It was Pyfer's first stakes victory as a journeyman jockey. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Champion Apprentice Pyfer Wins Her First Stakes as Journeyman

In what would otherwise be a nice, but unremarkable Black-Type stakes race, Jessica Pyfer turned Saturday’s Snow Chief Stakes into one of the day’s feel-good racing stories. The reigning Champion Apprentice Jockey, Pyfer returned to the races eight days after being injured in a paddock accident to win her first […]

Brickyard Ride rides for five consecutive stakes wins in Sunday's Grade 2 Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita Park. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Brickyard Ride Goes for Five in Sunday’s Triple Bend Stakes

Standout sprinter Brickyard Ride has taken his connections on quite a journey this year, one continuing Sunday when he goes for his fifth consecutive stakes victory in the Grade 2 Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita Park. The 5-year-old son of Clubhouse Ride is on pace to win 12 stakes […]

Tahoma because the first offspring of 2018 Triple Crown winning sire Justify to enter -- and win -- a race.(Image: Benoit Photo)

Tahoma Follows Triple Crown-Winning Sire Justify Into Winner’s Circle

At first glance, Sunday’s second race at Santa Anita Park looked to be a nondescript maiden special weight — even down to the 4/5 favorite, Tahoma. But even putting aside his two-length victory in the 4 1/2-furlong race, Tahoma is far from nondescript. The 2-year-old is the first foal from […]

Trainer Tim Yakteen learned plenty in defeat about the Kentucky Derby horses he inherited from Bob Baffert: Messier and Taiba. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Kentucky Derby Taught Tim Yakteen Plenty About Messier, Taiba

With both Messier and Taiba back at his Santa Anita Park barn, trainer Tim Yakteen took a look back at last Saturday’s Kentucky Derby shocker by 80/1 Rich Strike and came up with one inescapable conclusion many people overlooked. “Horses that show a fondness for Churchill Downs have a tendency […]

Santa Anita Handicap winner Express Train rides into Saturday's Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Santa Anita Park with a three-race winning streak. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Big ‘Cap Winner Express Train Roars Into Next Stop: The Californian

The rolling freight train that is Express Train makes another stop Saturday in Santa Anita Park’s Grade 2 Californian Stakes. That’s one of the featured events of the California track’s return to racing after a week’s planned hiatus between its Winter and Spring meets. The last time we saw Express […]

Slow Down Andy (4), seen here beating Bye Bye Bobby to win March's Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby, bowed out of the May 7 Kentucky Derby after spiking a fever. (Image: Coady Photography)

Due to Untimely Fever, Slow Down Andy Stops Short of Kentucky Derby

Slow Down Andy, trainer Doug O’Neill’s top Kentucky Derby prospect, spiked a fever in his Keeneland stall and will miss the Derby, O’Neill confirmed to OG News. “Andy got a cold, he’ll be fine, just won’t be ready for the Derby,” O’Neill said via text to OG News. A two-time […]

Slam Dunk Sermon won Santa Anita Park's final race Friday. That brought one ticket holder a $436,787.25 payday. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Single Bettor Solves Santa Anita Rainbow Pick Six for $436,787 Payday

A horse named Slam Dunk Sermon slammed home a single winning ticket in Santa Anita Park’s Rainbow Pick Six Jackpot pool Friday afternoon. That 20-cent solo ticket brought its owner a $436,787.25 payday. The ticket was purchased for $1,972.60 as part of a batch betting wager at the Hunt Valley […]

Laurel Park plays host to the first and final legs of the Stronach 5 wager. This is the last time The Stronach Group offers the cross country Pick 5 wager. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Friday Marks Bettors’ Last Shot at the Stronach 5 Cross Country Wager

Horseplayers get one more crack at the Stronach 5 Friday before The Stronach Group takes away the cross-country Pick 5 wager. Company officials announced Wednesday the Pick 5 wager featuring TSG tracks from California to Maryland will go on hiatus. Mike Rogers, acting president of the Maryland Jockey Club, said […]