Tag: Santa Anita Park

Gregorian Chant (2) won three consecutive sprints earlier this season. He tackles Santa Anita Park's unique downhill turf course for the first time Friday in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes. (Image: Benoit Photo)

It’s All Downhill For These Sprinters in Santa Anita’s Eddie D Stakes

Unlike some of its stakes brethren on Santa Anita Park’s opening day, the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes doesn’t offer a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” spot. It does, however, offer something no other track in North America offers its contestants: a trip down the iconic Santa Anita Hillside […]

The Breeders' Cup takes its Challenge Series to bettors with its Breeders' Cup Challenge Pick 6 this weekend at Belmont Park and Santa Anita Park. (Image: Breeders' Cup)

Inaugural Breeders’ Cup Challenge Pick 6 Gives Bettors Their Challenge

The New York Racing Association is adding a Pick 6 with a twist this weekend, playing host to the inaugural two-day Breeders’ Cup Challenge Pick 6 that features six races from the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series. All six races coming to bettors from Belmont Park and Santa Anita Park are […]

Opening Day for Santa Anita Park's 16-day Autumn Meet brings four stakes races and plenty of ways to wager on them. The California track unveiled its wagering menu. (Image: Santa Anita Park)

Santa Anita Park’s Hot Take: Low Takeout for Win-Place-Show Bettors

Santa Anita Park unveiled the wagering menu for its 16-day Autumn Meet opening on Friday, with one of the biggest features being the lowest takeout on win-place-show bets among any major American racetrack. The suburban Los Angeles track’s takeout on the most common wager in North American racing is 15.4%. […]

The Santa Anita Derby is one of the biggest meets of the year during Santa Anita Park's Winter/Spring Meet. It is one of 10 Grade 1s on the track's 94-stakes schedule. (Image: Kelly Serfoss)

Santa Anita Park Winter/Spring Meet Puts 10 Grade 1s on the Schedule

Santa Anita Park’s traditional day-after-Christmas opener for its Winter/Spring Meet ushers in a 94-stakes season – 59 of those graded – that once again, defines West Coast horse racing for half of the year. The suburban Los Angeles track, located at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, opens on […]

The unique Santa Anita Park hillside turf course returns for at least four stakes races during the track's Autumn Meet in October. (Image: Zoe Metz Photography)

Santa Anita’s Popular Hillside Turf Course Returns for Opening Weekend

Even with three Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series events headlining Santa Anita Park’s Autumn Meet opener, the iconic track’s famous hillside turf course could seize the day’s attention. That unique and popular course returns to the forefront for the Friday, Oct. 1 opening day. It provides the […]

Just like these Thoroughbreds, Santa Anita Park jumps out to a fast start or its Autumn Meet. The iconic West Coast track offers 13 stakes races opening weekend, including seven Breeders' Cup Challenge Series events. (Image: Santa Anita Park)

Santa Anita Puts Plenty at Stake for its Autumn Meet Opening Weekend

Each year, the Santa Anita Park Autumn Meet packs in three of the deepest meet-opening racing days of any major American track. This year’s 16-day Autumn Meet continues the trend, stacking seven Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series events on the track’s opening weekend. “Our intention is to get the Autumn Meet […]

Flavien Prat rode Going Global to all four of her US stakes victories. That streak goes to the test Saturday in the Grade 2 San Clemente at Del Marl. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Going Global Does Just That, Brings Four-Race Win Streak to Del Mar

Going Global began her racing career finishing fourth, 12th, and 13th in a trio of summer races in her native Ireland. There was nothing distinguishing her from the countless other 2-year-old fillies dotting Irish racetracks. This changed last November when Going Global broke her maiden in an Irish Handicap race […]

In his brief, five-race career, Charlatan was one of the most imposing colts to enter a starting gate. He retired Thursday after winning four of his five career races. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Charlatan Retired to Stud After Meteoric and Stellar Career

Standout colt Charlatan, who won every race but his last one, retired from racing Thursday, heading for stud duty at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Paris, KY. That comes a little over a month after the 4-year-old went on the shelf after a Churchill Downs workout. That last workout came […]

Dr Schivel and Flavien Prat made their move just in time to score a head victory in the colt's return from a 9 1/2-month layoff. (Image: Benoit Photography)

The Doctor is In: Dr Schivel, Mailman Money Win Key Allowance Races

There was Dr Schivel returning on one side of the country, Enforceable, Finnick the Fierce, Core Beliefs and Sonneman tangling on the other. This eclectic group of familiar names made up for a weekend devoid of Grade 1 races in North America with two intriguing allowance races on both sides […]

Royal Ship brings the best last-out Beyer Speed Figure, a 108, from this Grade 2 Californian victory. He is the 5/2 co-second favorite in Monday's Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita Park. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Hollywood Gold Cup Shines Light On Would-Be Older Stars

The Hollywood Gold Cup inaugural winner was Seabiscuit. Its last winner was Improbable. And in between, one of the West Coast’s signature races turned loose winners such as three-time champs Lava Man and Native Diver, two-time winner Game on Dude and Triple Crown owners Citation and Affirmed. August company, to […]

Smooth Like Strait is the 4/5 favorite for the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on Santa Anita Park's Memorial Day card. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Say the Word About the Shoemaker Mile’s Consistent Contenders

If it’s possible to ride into a Grade 1 race in form – riding into that race with two losses – Smooth Like Strait comes into this year’s Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita Park in perfect form. Yes, Smooth Like Strait finished third in his last start, the […]

United is one of the top turf horses on the West Coast. He's won five of his last seven races coming into Saturday's Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita Park. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Small Field and All, the Whittingham Looks Like a United Front

The Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita could not present a greener path to the winner’s circle for race favorite United. You’re sending out a turf terror with one of the best riders in the country aboard – Flavien Prat. You’re sending that turf terror out on a turf course […]

Trainer Leonard Powell, seen here with jockey Rafael Bejarano after the pair won the Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar in 2018, put in a record $150,000 claim for a 3-year-old filly Saturday. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Trainer Powell Puts In Santa Anita Park Record $150K Claim on Filly

Trainer Leonard Powell set a Santa Anita Park claiming record last Saturday when he put in a $150,000 claim for Nimbostratus, a 3-year-old French-bred filly. Powell’s claim destroyed the previous record of $125,000, set in 1997. Santa Anita fielded three $100,000 claims this meet — remarkable numbers, even at one […]

If Flavien Prat celebrates after the Belmont, he'll do it on a different horse than Preakness winner Rombauer. Prat takes the reins of Hot Charlie for the Belmont Stakes. He rode Hot Rod Charlie in the Kentucky Derby. (Image: Patrick Smith/Getty)

Belmont Musical Jockeys: Prat Trades Rombauer for Hot Rod Charlie

Trainer Doug O’Neill, who proved his nimbleness by quickly securing Flavien Prat’s jockey services for the Kentucky Derby, proved them once again for the Belmont Stakes. He said Prat will ride the Derby’s third-place runner in the June 5 Belmont Stakes. That, of course, means Michael McCarthy needs to find […]

Rombauer and Flavien Prat captured the 146th Preakness Stakes with a closing flourish that belied their 11/1 odds. It was Prat's second Triple Crown race victory, following his promoted Kentucky Derby win aboard Country House in 2019. (Image: AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Improbable Rombauer Turns in a Vintage Preakness Performance

Rombauer, the horse named after a vineyard, now goes by the new name: Preakness Stakes champion. And Rombauer, the horse named after the Napa Valley vineyard, wasn’t supposed to run the Preakness because he wasn’t supposed to run the race that got him into the Preakness. He wasn’t supposed to […]

Idol and Joel Rosario swiped the Santa Anita Handicap in deep stretch from Express Train. The 4-year-old standout will miss the second leg of the Wild West Bonus series with an undisclosed issue. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Big ‘Cap Winner Idol Sidelined, Won’t Chase Wild West Bonus

The $1 million Wild West Bonus will go unclaimed with the announcement that Santa Anita Handicap winner Idol will miss the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup with an undisclosed issue. Trainer Richard Baltus told Santa Anita Park’s Ed Golden that the issue doesn’t appear to be career-ending and that the […]

Rock Your World rocked Santa Anita Park's marquee race Saturday, winning the Santa Anita Derby by more than four lengths. Jockey Umberto Rispoli earned his first Grade 1 victory along the way. (Image: Benoit Photography)

On Record Day, Rock Your World Rocks, Rolls His Way to Kentucky Derby

Rock Your World rocked the Santa Anita Derby, which rocked bettors into producing Santa Anita Park’s largest all-sources pari-mutuel Santa Anita Derby handle in 14 years. On a day where fans returned to the Southern California track for the first time in more than a year, the 8,246 attendees on […]

Medina Spirit cost owner Amr Zedan only $35,000. He's earned nearly five times that total -- with more on the line in Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Medina Spirit, Bob Baffert Cast Their Spell in Santa Anita Derby

About the only thing faster than Life Is Good on the track was the rush of horses piling into the Santa Anita Derby the moment the Bob Baffert supercolt departed the Kentucky Derby Trail with an ankle injury. Now, all of a sudden, horses like Dream Shake, Parnelli, Law Professor […]