OUT OF THE GATE
SANTA ANITA LEADERS Through Thursday
Juan Hernandez / 50 Flavien Prat / 42 Antonio Fresu / 42 Frankie Dettori / 28 Hector Berrios / 24 Umberto Rispoli / 24 Trainers / Wins Doug O’Neill / 29 Mark Glatt / 25
Phil D’Amato / 24 Bob Baffert / 23 Steve Knapp / 20
WEEKEND STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
▪ $750,000, Grade I Santa Anita Derby, 3-year-olds, 11⁄8 miles
▪ $300,000, Grade II Santa Anita Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 11⁄16 miles
▪ $100,000, Grade III Monrovia Stakes, fillies and mares, 4and up, about 61⁄2 furlongs on turf
▪ $125,000Echo Eddie Stakes, Californiabred 3-year-olds, 6 1⁄2 furlongs ▪ $125,000Evening Jewel Stakes, Cal-bred 3-year-old fillies, 61⁄2 furlongs ▪ $100,000John Shear Stakes, 3-yearolds, about 61⁄2 furlongs on turf ▪ $100,000Angels Flight Stakes, 3-yearold fillies, about 61⁄2 furlongs on turf ▪ $30,000 James Smith Memorial Handicap, 3-year-old quarter horses, 350yards ▪ Santa Anita is reducing purses for the two-month portion of its season known as the Hollywood Meet, starting Friday, April 19 after a week off. A track executive told the California Horse Racing Board on March 21 that cuts would be needed to manage a $4 million purse deficit caused by declines in wagering. Officials confirmed a report by the Daily Racing Form’s Steve Andersen that the cuts amount to about 12% from 2023levels and affect everyday races and some stakes. The May 27Hollywood Gold Cup, now Grade II instead of Grade I, will be worth $200,000instead of $300,000. ▪ Trainers Neil Drysdale and Tim Yakteen ended graded-stakes droughts in turf miles run Thursday at Santa Anita after being rained out last weekend. The mare Nadette and Hector Berrios burst past Stay and Scam late in the $100,000, Grade III Wilshire to give Drysdale his first graded win in California since 2022. Johannes and Umberto Rispoli took the $100,000, Grade III American for Yakteen’s first graded win since the 2023 Santa Anita Derby with Practical Move.
▪ The final round of official future betting on the May 4 Kentucky Derby closes at 1 p.m. PDT Saturday, before the final Derby preps are run. Fierceness is 7-2 on the morning line after his 13 1⁄2-length win in the Florida Derby, followed by 6-1 Sierra Leone, 8-1 Catching Freedom, 10-1 Forever Young and 12-1Dornoch. Thirty-nine individuals and an “all others” option are available for wagering.
▪ Two big changes in the Kentucky Derby contenders list: Santa Anita-based Endlessly is in, after trainer Michael McCarthy had indicated the Jeff Ruby Steaks winner at Turfway Park would run in a grass race on the Derby undercard. Timberlake is out, trainer Brad Cox said after the Rebel Stakes winner faded to fourth behind Muth in the Arkansas Derby. ▪ Handicappers have begun seeing workout clockings from Santa Anita’s new all-weather training track in pastperformance charts. The synthetic oval, installed at a cost of $8 million, opened for workouts Saturday after being tested by joggers and gallopers for most of March.
▪ Kent Desormeaux’s victory aboard Bob Hess-trained Ashcroft on March 24at
Santa Anita, the racing Hall of Famer’s first from 16 mounts in 2024, marked the 39th year in a row he has ridden at least one winner. (Hat tip to Gary Dougherty’s Racing Stats &Info tweets.) Desormeaux, 54, has 6,168wins, 17th among North American thoroughbred jockeys all-time and fourth among active riders.
▪ Jockey Giovanni Franco, unseated from Flatterwithjewels at the start of Santa Anita’s one-mile second race Thursday, didn’t miss a mount and rode sixth-race winner Diamonds Danzing. The second was declared no contest and the rest of the field was pulled up on the backstretch because Franco didn’t get up immediately and could have been in the horses’ path to the finish. Single-race and some multirace wagers were refunded.