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Los Angeles native Aron Wellman has been to Santa Anita Park enough times to know opening day is different.
“It’s sort of an extended Christmas gift or bonus,” said Wellman, who founded and runs Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which owns Santa Anita Derby and Preakness winner Journalism, among dozens of other horses. “You know, as an owner, as a fan, a handicapper, a gambler, I think the quality of the competition, the big races, the big fields, the prestige and just sort of the electric buzz surrounding the day.
“The opening-day card is annually one of the best days on the racing calendar.”
That date is traditionally the day after Christmas, but for the second time in seven years, the forecast of heavy rain caused Santa Anita officials to postpone “extended Christmas” by two days.
The revised opening-week schedule for Santa Anita’s “Classic Meet” will feature racing Sunday and Monday, a day off Tuesday and full cards Dec. 31 through Jan. 4. The regular three-day racing weeks begin Jan. 9 and continue through April 5, with racing every Friday through Sunday plus holiday cards on Jan. 19 and Feb. 16.
Unfortunately for those involved in the sport, not every day can be opening day and the “fun factor drops off in a hurry,” as handicapper, owner and “Thoroughbred Los Angeles” radio co-host Jon Lindo put it. Familiar issues include the declining horse population, bettors turned off by computer-assisted wagering, no ancillary revenue from other sources (like slot-machine imitator Historical Horse Racing) to boost purses and a shortage of recognizable equine and human stars.
Here are some storylines to follow over the next several months:
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Big races on big days
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Santa Anita has stakes races every weekend, but all weekends — or even days — are not created equal. There are five days with at least four stakes races, beginning with a six-pack on opening day highlighted by three Grade 1 events — the Malibu Stakes for 3-year-old males and the La Brea Stakes and American Oaks, each for 3-year-old fillies.
The other big days, all on Saturdays: Jan. 17 (Cal Cup), Feb. 7 (D. Wayne Lukas and Robert B. Lewis stakes), March 7 (Santa Anita Handicap, Kilroe Mile, Beholder Mile, San Felipe Stakes) and April 4 (Santa Anita Derby and Oaks).
The opening-day stakes don’t have many marquee names; in fact, there are just two Grade 1 winners entered: Nysos and Nevada Beach, both trained by Bob Baffert and both in the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes. Nysos, who won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in his last start, will be the heaviest favorite of the day (3-5 on the morning line).
It could be a big Sunday for Baffert, who has the top five (yes, five) morning-line choices in the field of 10 for the Malibu and three fillies in the La Brea. He won the same three stakes races on opening day in 2022 (when the Pincay was known as the San Antonio).
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Money, money, money
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Figuring out the purse for 34 of the 35 graded stakes races at Santa Anita is, for horsemen anyway, maddeningly simple: Just look up the minimum purse required in North America.
For a Grade 1 race, that’s $300,000. It drops to $200,000 for Grade 2 races and $100,000 for Grade 3s.
Even the one local exception, the Santa Anita Derby, pays “only” $500,000 after offering $750,000 from 2021-24. The current amount is half the purse on offer for the top 3-year-old races at Gulfstream Park (Florida Derby) and Fair Grounds (Louisiana Derby), and just one-third what Oaklawn Park pays for the Arkansas Derby.
Last year the Santa Anita Derby attracted only five entries, which reduced the number of Kentucky Derby qualifying points available in the race. That almost kept Baeza, who finished second to Journalism in the Arcadia race, from qualifying for the Derby (he made it in the field only after another horse was scratched and wound up placing third).
It’s the same story for older horses, where Gulfstream offers the $3-million Pegasus World Cup next month plus turf races for $1 million and $500,000. Oaklawn Park has a half-dozen races worth at least $500,000 (two at $1.25 million), and Fair Grounds has three between $250,000 and $500,000. No Grade 3 race at any of those tracks offers less than $150,000.
All of that makes it harder for Santa Anita to attract top horses from those states, which increase purses with money from slot machines or casinos, something not available to California tracks. Santa Anita, however, has hiked its purses this meeting for maiden and allowance races.
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Road to the Triple Crown
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The buildup to the Kentucky Derby dominates the first third of each year, and any discussion of the 3-year-olds to watch at Santa Anita starts with Baffert, even though the Hall of Fame trainer hasn’t won the Santa Anita Derby since 2019 and the Kentucky Derby since 2020. His return last year from a three-year suspension at Churchill Downs did not go well — his only Derby starter finished 15th — but based on his experience and resources, it would be unwise to discount his chances of winning a record seventh Derby.
His most accomplished juveniles to date include Litmus Test, recent winner of the Los Alamitos Futurity; Brant, the Del Mar Futurity winner who was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and Desert Gate. But there are always more on the way, and not all of them will run here.
Unfortunately for local fans, one of the other top early Derby hopefuls appears unlikely to make the race. Daily Racing Form reported trainer Vladimir Cerin’s Mr. A.P., runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, will be out of training until March. Another prospect worth following is the Jeff Mullins-trained Intrepido, who was fifth in the Juvenile but earned a Grade 1 win last fall in the American Pharoah at Santa Anita.
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Highlighting the horsemen
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The four men who have won the last eight Eclipse Awards as America’s top jockey will be prominent on opening day, but Irad Ortiz Jr., Jose Ortiz, Flavien Prat and Joel Rosario will not be regulars at Santa Anita.
The dominant Southern California jockey in recent years has been Juan Hernandez, who will try to win his fifth consecutive winter-spring riding title in Arcadia, something no one has achieved since Laffit Pincay Jr. captured six in a row from 1970-75.
Umberto Rispoli (who won the Del Mar fall meeting title), Hector Berrios and Antonio Fresu battled for second last year, finishing within two wins of each other but 20 behind Hernandez. One newcomer to watch could be Emisael Jaramillo, a Venezuelan native who has been a top rider for several years in Florida.
Mark Glatt won his first training title last spring at Santa Anita, ending a four-year run by Phil D’Amato. Baffert had the highest win percentage (34 to 22 for Glatt) and also dominated the stakes competition with 16 winners, more than twice as many as the runner-up, D’Amato (7).
The post Santa Anita opening day again delayed, but there are plenty of storylines to follow appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
