New wagers to open fall meet

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita will launch a 20-cent jackpot pick six with the start of its 22-day autumn meeting on Friday, a season highlighted by Breeders’ Cup prep races over the next two weekends.

The Rainbow 6 has been popular at sister track Gulfstream Park and is being tried in Southern California for the first time Friday. The entire pool is paid out if there is a single winner. If there is more than one winning ticket, 30 percent of the pool after takeout is carried over until there is a single winning ticket, or until a mandatory payout day.

There will be a mandatory payout on closing day, Nov. 4.

To boost interest at the start of the meeting, the bet will have a guaranteed pool of $250,000 on Friday and $1 million on Saturday. Friday’s nine-race program, which begins at 1 p.m. Pacific, is highlighted by the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes on the hillside turf course.

Friday, Santa Anita will be part of the $1 Stronach 5, a pick five bet that consists of races run in about an hour from four tracks owned by The Stronach Group – Golden Gate Fields, Gulfstream Park, Laurel Park, and Santa Anita. The $1 bet will have a takeout of 12 percent and will be held only on Fridays.

Beginning with the Eddie D Stakes, which could produce runners for the BC Turf Sprint, there are 13 stakes through Oct. 8 designed as prep races for the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2-3.

Saturday is the biggest day of the meeting in terms of prize money, with four Grade 1, $300,000 races, each offering a Breeders’ Cup berth – the Awesome Again Stakes for 3-year-olds and up, the Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, the American Pharoah Stakes for 2-year-olds, and the Rodeo Drive Stakes for fillies and mares on turf. The American Pharoah Stakes was run in past years as the FrontRunner Stakes and was won by Triple Crown hero American Pharoah in 2014.

The Grade 1, $300,000 Zenyatta Stakes for fillies and mares will be run Sunday and offers the winner a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes for 2-year-olds on Oct. 6 will be run at five furlongs on turf, a new distance at Santa Anita. The winner will receive a berth to the BC Juvenile Turf Sprint on Nov. 2.

For decades, turf sprints at Santa Anita have been run at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the track’s unique hillside turf course. Those will continue and will be complemented by a small number of five-furlong turf races.

Purses have been raised for races with a claiming value of $25,000 or less and all races for maiden claimers. An $8,000 claimer will be worth $18,000 this year, compared with $16,000 in 2017. A maiden race for $40,000 to $50,000 claimers has been increased from $28,000 in 2017 to $30,000 this fall.

Santa Anita increased purses 10 percent for all overnight races for the final 15 days of its springsummer meeting in June.