Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Giant Expectations has option
ARCADIA, Calif. – By late Saturday afternoon, the 4-year-old colt Giant Expectations could have a new race goal for the Breeders’ Cup.
Giant Expectations starts in Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, and although he is using the race as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, trainer Peter Eurton said he would consider switching him to the Sprint if he were to win.
Giant Expectations fits in the $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship. He won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs in his stakes debut Aug. 26 at Del Mar, earning a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 3 at Del Mar.
The winner of the Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs will receive a fees-paid berth for the BC Sprint at six furlongs on Nov. 4.
Leading to the Santa Anita autumn meeting, Giant Expectations was being considered for the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at 1 1/8 miles last Saturday, but only briefly.
“That race came up really salty,” Eurton said. “There was no reason to do that.”
Distance races are in the future for Giant Expectations, who won a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Belmont Park earlier this year by 9 3/4 lengths.
“I think next year, we might look for a race at a mile and an eighth,” Eurton said.
Giant Expectations has won 3 of 10 starts, with all the wins since late May. Giant Expectations did not start for 11 months, from the summer of 2016 until May because of lung problems. Eurton trains Giant Expectations for Ryan Exline, Justin Border, and Dan Gatto.
The list of expected starters in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship is led by Ransom the Moon and Roy H, the first two finishers in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs July 29 at Del Mar. The race is expected to have a small field.
Hassinger escapes Vegas shooting
Former trainer Alex Hassinger, who won two Breeders’ Cup races, was grateful to be home in Texas on Tuesday after he and his wife, Anne, narrowly escaped from the mass shooting Sunday night at a concert they were attending in Las Vegas.
“It was surreal,” Hassinger told Daily Racing Form from his home in New Braunfels, Texas. “We’re very fortunate. We were right there in the middle of it.”
Hassinger and said he and his wife have attended the Route 91 Harvest Festival for several years, and this year were in the company of one of the concert’s co-founders. He said they were able to scramble into the inside of a temporary structure adjacent to the stage when the shooting began. As of Wednesday, there were 59 people listed as dead and more than 500 injured.
“They say that gunshots sound like firecrackers, and that’s exactly what it sounded like at first,” Hassinger said.
After moving quickly to the temporary structure, “we were on the floor and you could hear bullets hitting the side of the building,” he said. “It was confusing. Where was it coming from? How many shooters were there? Where should we go?”
Hassinger said one of his friends suffered a minor injury to his foot when struck by a bullet.
Eventually, the Hassingers were able to find a path away from the concert area, but while leaving the area Hassinger noticed some people who appeared to be sitting in place, or had other people hovering over them. He said it didn’t sink in until later just what he was looking at, the moment initially a blur of trying to survive.
He and his wife were not able to get back to their hotel until Monday morning at 5 and were on a flight home later that day.
Hassinger said he had heard from several old friends in the past 24 hours, and he became emotional saying what it meant to hear from the likes of jockey Gary Stevens, who was the best man at Hassinger’s wedding, and trainer Eoin Harty, for whom Hassinger once worked as an assistant.
Hassinger, 55, won the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies with Eliza and the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with Anees. He also won the 1993 Santa Anita Oaks with Eliza and the 1992 Spinster with Fowda. Hassinger also was the original trainer of Cigar, who subsequently was moved to Bill Mott.
After leaving the racetrack more than a decade ago, Hassinger went to work for the veterinary products company LubriSyn, for whom he is now the national sales manager.
Om targets Breeders’ Cup Mile
Om, second by a nose in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and third in the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 29, will be pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Mile on turf Nov. 4 at Del Mar, trainer Dan Hendricks said.
Hendricks said he consulted with owner K.B. Sareen last weekend to discuss plans.
“He said I can go for the BC Mile,” Hendricks said. “We’ll look at it in a few weeks.”
In the Eddie D Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, Om was beaten three-quarters of a length as the even-money favorite by the longshot Mr. Roary, another contender for the BC Mile. Om raced in traffic in the stretch of the Eddie D and finished a half-length behind runner-up Tribalist.
“He still ran super,” Hendricks said. “He got beat less than a length in a graded stakes.”