Lasix agreement reached, trainers set for reopening

ARCADIA, Calif. – Now that racing will resume March 29 at Santa Anita, the predicted mass exodus of horses from Southern California will be a mere trickle.

Every spring, locally based horses leave the state for Derby preps and big purses. The same is happening this year. But a forecast of complete evacuation has changed, and when entries for the March 29 “opening day” card are accepted, they will come from a large pool.

Santa Anita racing secretary Steve Lym acknowledged a slight inventory decline, but some 1,600 horses remain stabled at Santa Anita along with a combined estimate of 1,000 at San Luis Rey Downs and Los Alamitos. The 2,600 total is sufficient to card deep, competitive races.

It did not look that way last week, when the proposed ban on race-day Lasix could have further isolated California from jurisdictions in North America that allow Lasix. The proposal shocked trainers and owners, who began looking elsewhere to run. It changed when Santa Anita owner The Stronach Group and the Thoroughbred Owners of California agreed to a compromise.

“The minute we relaxed Lasix, everything changed,” Lym said. “I don’t think too many have left. For the most part, our guys that are here are staying here.”

Instead of a total ban on raceday Lasix, The Stronach Group and the TOC agreed to a gradual phase-out. The permissible Lasix dose will drop from 10 ccs to 5 ccs beginning March 29 at Santa Anita and Golden Gate. The total Lasix elimination begins with next year’s 2-yearolds (foals of 2018).

Phil D’Amato was one of numerous Santa Anita-based trainers who were considering out-of-state options. “I’m going to run a few at Keeneland, but not as many as I had planned in the previous week, thanks to the agreement,” D’Amato said.

“We’re loaded up with horses to run,” D’Amato said. “We got good news and we’re all on board. My owners are eager to watch their horses run in California.”

D’Amato plans to run several stakes horses the first two weekends when racing resumes, including Touching Rainbows, Pee Wee Reese, S Y Sky, Foster Boi, Dr Wysong, and Hunt. The revised stakes program at Santa Anita includes a Grade 2 turf marathon on reopening day of March 29, five graded stakes on March 30, and three stakes on March 31.

While the Santa Anita stakes program resumes in orderly fashion, there will be changes to the claiming structure. In the condition book that begins April 11, the minimum claiming price will be increased for various levels. The lowest claiming price will be $10,000 (previously $6,250); the lowest maidenclaiming price will be $25,000 (from $16,000); the lowest claiming price on turf will be either $30,000 or $40,000 (from $20,000).

Monday was active for workouts on a Santa Anita main track, which remains under intense scrutiny following an uptick in equine fatalities. For the fourth consecutive day on the main track there were no apparent incidents.

Among the 118 main-track works were 3-year-old stakes winners trained by Bob Baffert who will run Sunday at Sunland Park. Grade 1-winning filly Chasing Yesterday is likely to be favored in the $200,000 Sunland Oaks; Grade 3-winning colt Mucho Gusto is the program favorite for the Grade 3 Sunland Derby.

Chasing Yesterday worked alone at 6:45 a.m. and looked good finishing. She worked six furlongs, although she received a five-furlong work time of 1:02.40.

“She went very nice,” Baffert said, the same comment jockey Drayden Van Dyke gave Baffert via walkie-talkie. “Very nice,” Van Dyke said.

Winner of the Grade 1 Starlet at Los Alamitos on Dec. 8, Chasing Yesterday was expected to make her 2019 debut March 10 here in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel. That race was canceled when Santa Anita suspended racing to re-evaluate the main track.

Chasing Yesterday is the presumptive favorite in the Sunland Oaks, with confirmation coming Monday that Bellafina would stay home and run April 6 in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks.

Bellafina posted an impressive five-furlong solo workout under Flavien Pratt at 7:45 on Monday. She is entered in the Sunland Oaks, but owner Kaleem Shah said Sunland was only a contingency plan.

“She’s going to stay and run here,” Shah said. “We only entered not knowing what was going to happen here. We didn’t want our plans to be jeopardized.”

Beyond her status as the topranked 3-year-old filly in California, with two Grade 1 wins and three Grade 2s, Bellafina is a leading candidate for the Kentucky Oaks and certain favorite for the Santa Anita Oaks if she continues to train like she did Monday.

The main track at Santa Anita has slowed, but Bellafina blazed in five furlongs in 59.20, one second faster than the secondfastest workout. National Turf clocker Andy Harrington said, “She made the track look fast.”

Mucho Gusto worked moments earlier, in company with Dr. Dorr. Mucho Gusto, under Joe Talamo, worked inside his older mate and was always going easier. Mucho Gusto was given a six-furlong work time of 1:13.60.

“He looked great. He’s going into [the Sunland Derby] the right way,” Baffert said.

Mucho Gusto has won three of four starts including the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis in his most recent start Feb. 2.

BARBARA D. LIVINGSTON Racing returns March 29 to Santa Anita following an agreement between its owner and the Thoroughbred Owners of California.