OUT OF THE GATE
SANTA ANITA LEADERS Through Thursday
Flavien Prat / 32 Juan Hernandez / 32 Antonio Fresu / 26 Frankie Dettori / 19 Hector Berrios / 13 Umberto Rispoli / 13
Mark Glatt / 18 Doug O'Neill / 16 Phil D'Amato / 16 Steve Knapp / 14 Bob Baffert / 13
WEEKEND STAKES RACES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
▪ $100,000Santa Ana Stakes (Grade III), fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up, 11/4 miles on turf ▪ $100,000Wishing Well Stakes, fillies and mares, 4and up, about 61/2 furlongs on turf ▪ $35,000 Denim N Diamonds Handicap, quarterhorse mares, 4-year-olds and up, 350 yards ▪ $125,000Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes, quarterhorses, 3-year-olds, 350 yards ▪ Sierra Leone was bet down to the 6-1 favorite in the fourth Kentucky Derby futures pool after the Chad Brown-trained colt and rider Tyler Gaffalione rallied to a half-length win over a deep field in last Saturday's Risen Star Stakes in Louisiana. Sierra Leone and Risen Star runner-up Track Phantom rose to second and third in the NTRA 3-year-olds rankings. Nysos is No. 1 and Muth No. 4, but both are ineligible for the May 4 Kentucky Derby because of Churchill Downs' sanctions against trainer Bob Baffert.
▪ The next Derby steppingstone, the Rebel Stakes in Arkansas on Saturday, looks like a soft touch for Timberlake and jockey Cristian Torres as trainer Brad Cox sends the Champagne Stakes winner out for his first start since a fourth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
▪ The Santa Ana highlights local weekend stakes action. Khinjani and jockey Frankie Dettori can run down Linda's Gift and Tiago Pereira if the British-bred filly moves forward off a win in her U.S. debut for Santa Anita-leading trainer Mark Glatt.
▪ Echo Zulu, champion 2-year-old filly of 2021, was euthanized after injuring a leg in a stall accident while recovering from the foreleg fracture that kept her out of last fall's Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, trainer Steve Asmussen told the Daily Racing Form.
▪ C Z Rocket, winner of the Pat O'Brien Stakes at Del Mar and the Santa Anita Sprint Championship in 2020, has been retired following a sixth-place finish at the allowance level in Arkansas on Monday, trainer Peter Miller announced. C Z Rocket is a 10-year-old gelding.
▪ Betting favorites are winning an enormous 45.7% of races at Santa Anita this season, including 12 of 18 on Saturday and Sunday, and seven of the past eight stakes races. ▪ Upcoming: The Santa Anita Handicap and the San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds are among four graded stakes Saturday, March 2. Reserved-seat sales begin Monday for Santa Anita Derby day, April 6, featuring three graded stakes.