OUT OF THE GATE
SANTA ANITA LEADERS Through Thursday
Juan Hernandez / 46 Flavien Prat / 41 Antonio Fresu / 38 Frankie Dettori / 28 Hector Berrios / 20 Umberto Rispoli / 20 ▪ $100,000, Grade III San Luis Rey Stakes, 4-year-olds and up, 11⁄2 miles on turf ▪ $100,000 Sensational Star, California-breds, 4 and up, about 61⁄2 furlongs on turf ▪ $500,000, Grade I Los Alamitos Oaks, 3-year-old quarter-horse fillies, 400 yards ▪ $225,000 El Primero del Ano Derby, 3-year-old quarter horses, 400 yards ▪ The San Luis Rey at Santa Anita on Saturday features 2023winner Offlee Naughty and a rematch of February’s San Marcos Stakes 1-2-3 finishers Missed the Cut, Planetario and Balladeer. Going back up to 1 1⁄2 miles could help Planetario.
▪ The Los Alamitos Oaks on Saturday pits fastest qualifier Asscher against the Monty Arrossa-trained trio of Double Down 123, Southern Devine and Favorite City in a field of nine fillies.
▪ Los Alamitos-based trainer Paul Jones was named to the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame last weekend. Jones, second in career wins at Los Al behind Blane Schvaneveldt with nearly 3,900, has won the All American Futurity three times at Ruidoso (N.M.) Downs and the Champion of Champions at Los Al six times.
▪ Rained-out training sessions were a factor in Santa Anita running short fields this winter, as discussed here last week. Some help on future wet days will come from the installation of an $8million all-weather training track. The new synthetic oval inside the turf course is expected to be ready for timed workouts in the coming weeks.
▪ Stay and Scam and regular jockey Mario Gutierrez have two wins and a close second and third in Santa Anita’s hillside turf sprints after earning his first stakes victory in Sunday’s Irish O’Brien. Trainer Doug O’Neill said in the winner’s circle that the 4-year-old daughter of Square Eddie could stretch out to one-mile races.
▪ Hall of Fame jockey Walter Blum died at 89 on March 14 in Hallandale Beach, Fla. Blum, whose 4,382 wins put him behind only Bill Shoemaker, Johnny Longden, Eddie Arcaro and Steve Brooks when he retired in 1975, scored famous upsets with Gun Bow (over Kelso) in the 1964 Woodward Stakes and Pass Catcher (over Canonero II) in the 1971 Belmont.
▪ Santa Anita jockey Umberto Rispoli’s next win will be his 2,000th worldwide, according to agent Matt Nakatani.
The 35-year-old Italian is credited with 464wins in North America since coming here in 2019.
▪ Santa Anita trainer Steve Knapp received a 15-day suspension, scheduled to start April 1. The stewards said Knapp violated California rules requiring soundness examinations in the case of Truest of True, a 3-year-old who died after a metacarpal injury in training Jan. 18, according to the California Horse Racing Board website.
▪ More about Los Al opting to cancel a March 10 race after five of six entrants were scratched: Spokesman Orlando Gutierrez said the track considered running the race as a walkover — which would have been the first in its 78years — but decided to “maintain the integral wholeness” of the pick-six and other multi-race bets by canceling them, which preserved a more than $10,000carryover. Gutierrez said handle ended up at least 25% lower than any other Sunday of the season.