OUT OF THE GATE

SANTA ANITA LEADERS Through Thursday

Juan Hernandez / 45 Flavien Prat / 38 Antonio Fresu / 35 Frankie Dettori / 26 Umberto Rispoli / 19 ▪ $100,000, Grade III San Carlos Stakes, 4-year-olds and up, 7furlongs

▪ $100,000The Pasadena, 3-year-olds, 1mile on turf ▪ $100,000Irish O’Brien Stakes, Cal-bred fillies and mares, 4and up, about 61⁄2 furlongs on turf ▪ The Chosen Vron, just named 2023California-bred Horse of the Year, starts from the sometimes tricky No. 1post and faces streaking Elwood Blues and Ghost of Midnight in Saturday’s San Carlos Stakes. The 6-year-old gelding, winner of 13of 17races, started from the the rail in sprints twice previously, producing a minor stakes win and a defeat at odds-on.

▪ Nysos, the top-ranked North American 3-year-old, is out of training for a month, the Thoroughbred Daily News was first to report. Trainer Bob Baffert told TDN the colt had a minor setback. He was scratched from the March 3San Felipe Stakes after running his record to 3for 3by winning the Feb. 3Robert B. Lewis.

▪ Official future betting on the May 4Kentucky Derby is open Friday through 3p.m. Sunday. Sierra Leone (5-1), Timberlake (8-1), Dornoch (12-1) and Fierceness (12-1) top the morning line among 39individual horses listed, and there’s an “all other 3-year-olds” option (15-1). California-based horses are longshots: Michael McCarthy-trained Endlessly (50-1), winner of the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields, and Phil D’Amato’s Stronghold (80-1), first in the Sunland Derby in New Mexico.

▪ Fans at Santa Anita can cheer the memory of Jerry Antonucci on Sunday. The sixth race will be named in honor of the popular Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Orange County Register handicapper who died Feb. 6at age 77.

▪ Los Alamitos management opted to cancel its sixth race last Sunday— and connected multi-race bets — after five of the six entrants were scratched. It was a 1,000-yard race, with a $15,000purse, open to thoroughbreds and quarter horses. Steward Tom Ward said he’d never seen a race scratch down to one horse in his 54years on the job.

▪ Purse increases of $1million were announced for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (to $7million) and Turf (to $5million) to be run at Del Mar Nov. 1-2. Those races already were the two richest in America.

▪ In England, Galopin Des Champs and jockey Paul Townend are favored to win today’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.