Santa Ana wholly owns Sabbath stakes action

In the face of a Puritan ethic that sanctified the seventh day of the week and kept politicians at bay, racetracks once fought long and hard to legalize Sunday racing. Florida waited until 1986 to add Sunday racing to its calendar. New York, apparently more progressive, made the practice legal in 1973, except for Sundays named Palm and Easter, although Palm Sunday racing was eventually okayed. One year later, California followed suit and celebrated by running both the 1974 Santa Anita Handicap and Santa Anita Derby on Sundays. Lightning, it should be noted, did not strike.

Now, however, it looks as if Sunday racing is history, at least when it comes to racetracks putting a best foot forward. The stacking of stakes races on super Saturdays has drained Sundays of many of the marquee events that used to entertain weekend crowds. Listed stakes and overnight handicaps sometimes provide token class for Sunday programs, but more often than not all pretense is dropped. Sunday has become the new Thursday, at least out there on the playing field.

This Sunday is typical, a comprehensive March Mildness across the land. At Aqueduct, the top purse of $67,000 goes to fillies and mares at a mile under allowance/optional $40,000 claiming conditions. At Gulfstream Park, a pair of $55,000 maiden races share top billing. Oaklawn follows its big Rebel card on Saturday with a stakes-free Sunday led by a $75,000 claimer with an $82,000 pot. Fair Grounds counters with nine races in which all but four horses all day will be running for claiming tags, while the sport on Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs is also redolent with claimers and purses that fail to escape the teens.

In some marketing circles, Sundays bear the unfortunate label of “family days” and therefore are occasionally decorated with jamborees, food trucks, and giveaways in lieu of quality racing. The cynical bottom line is clear: Families don’t care what they’re watching as long as they are fed, watered, and diverted with shiny toys. Basically, the same things they would get at an outdoor mall.

Given the current economic model, with wagering from off-track sources driving the train, there is little chance for Sundays to be revived as an opportunity to watch good horses compete. Thankfully, a few tracks push back.

On Sunday at Santa Anita Park – the day after all promotional resources are exhausted by the Gaelic excess of St. Patrick’s Day – nine older fillies and mares will go postward in the Grade 2 Santa Ana Stakes at nine furlongs on the grass, as long as predicted storms do not render the course inoperable.

The field is deep and competitive, but without a standout star. Even with its purse of $200,000 – the minimum for a Grade 2 event – the Santa Ana lured only Majestic Angel from the Midwest and nothing from the East, where trainers like Chad Brown, Graham Motion, and Mark Casse have middle distance turf mares rooming three to a stall. Richard Baltas, who enjoys a similar embarrassment of riches out West, has done his part by entering three, including Midnight Crossing, winner of the Robert Frankel Stakes on Dec. 30, and Madam Dancealot, who nearly pulled off the 10-furlong American Oaks over the course that same afternoon.

In addition to Midnight Crossing, a daughter of Dark Angel, Ireland’s breeding program will be represented in the Santa Ana by 2017 Santa Barbara winner Evo Campo and Laseen, a daughter of Dylan Thomas who finished a close third in the Frankel.

“She’s had so many chances, and she’s always right there,” said Laseen’s trainer, Jim Cassidy. “But it’s always something. So this time I’m switching riders.”

Desperate times call for desperate measures, although going from Hall of Famer Victor Espinoza to Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux is hardly a sign of panic. Laseen has been firing from out of the pack in all sorts of races, answering the bell 12 times in the last 12 months for Cassidy and DP Racing.

“She’s tough, full of tenacity,” Cassidy said. “She pretty much refuses to work, but she doesn’t seem to need much conditioning.”

Laseen is also 7, the oldest member of the Santa Ana field.

“Yeah, but she hasn’t changed a bit,” Cassidy said. “I don’t think she knows her own age.”

Cassidy noted that the condition of the course will play into his decision whether to run Laseen, who may hail from boggy Ireland but who by now is a full-fledged top-of-the-ground California racehorse. Rain was predicted for Friday night and Saturday.

The 2018 winner of the Santa Ana will join a handsome roster that includes champions Estrapade, Possibly Perfect, Wandesta, Golden Apples, Fiji, Track Robbery, and Waya, who took the 1979 running as a handicap under 127 pounds.

Household racing names such as The Very One, Exchange, Tuscan Evening, Megahertz, and Queen to Conquer also counted the Santa Ana among their many accomplishments, as did the exotically marked chestnut Belle Marie, owned by George Steinbrenner, trained by Charlie Whittingham, and ridden by Bill Shoemaker to win the 1974 running.