Fewer stakes at Cup-less fall meeting

Santa Anita will offer 21 stakes for its 19-day autumn meeting from Sept. 29-Oct. 29, six fewer than during the 2016 meet, which included the Breeders’ Cup.

This year, the Breeders’ Cup is at Del Mar on Nov. 3-4. Six stakes typically run at Santa Anita during a Breeders’ Cup meeting have been transferred to Del Mar.

The most significant change is that Santa Anita has eliminated the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile. The City of Hope Mile was run with a purse of $200,000 in past years as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

In place of the City of Hope Mile, Santa Anita will run the $75,000 Obviously Mile on Oct. 7. The City of Hope Mile is expected to be part of the track’s 2018 autumn calendar.

Without the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita this year, the track has less money available for stakes purses.

A similar situation occurred in 2015, the last year Santa Anita did not host the Breeders’ Cup, when the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship was replaced by the $70,000 King Pellinore Stakes as a prep for the BC Turf.

This fall, the Sept. 30 program has five Grade 1 races, all preps for the Breeders’ Cup – the FrontRunner Stakes for 2-year-olds, Awesome Again Stakes for older horses, Rodeo Drive Stakes for fillies and mares on turf, Zenyatta Stakes for older females on the main track, and the Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies.

Those five races and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Oct. 7 offer automatic berths for Breeders’ Cup races to the winner.