Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Going to Vegas gives Baltas fourth straight Santa Ana win
ARCADIA, Calif. – Loose on the lead, Going to Vegas proved impossible to catch in Saturday’s Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes for fillies and mares on turf at Santa Anita. The victory gave trainer Richard Baltas a record fourth consecutive win in the Santa Ana, which was first held in 1968. Baltas won the Santa Ana from 2017-2019. The race was not run in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel won the Santa Ana eight times, but never more than twice in succession.
Going to Vegas won her first stakes in the $100,500 Santa Ana at 1 1/4 miles. The win left Baltas contemplating a start for Going to Vegas in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf May 31.
“We might take a shot there,” Baltas said. “She’s getting better as she matures as a 4-year-old filly.
“She put it together. She looked happy on the lead out there by herself. She surprised me how she finished.”
Going to Vegas ($8.60) finished 3 3/4 lengths in front of the runner-up, 2-5 favorite Mucho Unusual, the 2020 California-bred horse of the year. Mucho Unusual won the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes on turf here last September and won two Grade 3 stakes on turf earlier at this meeting.
Going to Vegas was claimed for $50,000 last June by Baltas, Harry Bederian, Harout Kamberian, and Hagop Nakkashian. The filly, who has earned $190,740 since being claimed, was sold to current owners Abbondanza Racing, Medallion Racing, and the MyRacehorse syndicate after a second-place finish in the Grade 1 American Oaks here in December, the last of three consecutive seconds in graded stakes.
Abbondanza has owned or co-owned three of the Baltastrained Santa Ana winners, including Goodyearforroses in 2017 and Elysea’s World in 2019.
Through Sunday, Baltas has five stakes wins at the winterspring meeting. He has a chance to add to that total when Ippodamia’s Girl starts in what should be a competitive running of the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes at a mile on turf for fillies and mares on Saturday.
Ippodamia’s Girl, 6, returned from a layoff of more than 16 months to win an allowance race at a mile on turf on March 12. Baltas also may run Colonial Creed, who was fourth behind Mucho Unusual in the Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes in January and was withdrawn from the Santa Ana.
Other candidates for the $200,000 Royal Heroine are the stakes winners Charmaine’s Mia, Dogtag, Maxim Rate, and Raymundos Secret, and the allowance race winner Tapwater, a late scratch from the Santa Ana.
Trainer Simon Callaghan said Maxim Rate could be sent to Keeneland for the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes on turf on April 10.
The Royal Heroine is one of six stakes on Saturday’s program, a blockbuster day of racing led by the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby. The program will include a mandatory payout in the 20-cent Rainbow pick six.
Valdivia wins two
Jockey Jose Valdivia Jr. equaled his best day of the winter-spring meeting on Saturday, winning two races on a card for the first time in two months.
Valdivia won the first race on Mind Meld ($7.60) and the fourth on Love My Jimmy ($9.80).
“It’s nice when they run like that,” Valdivia said Sunday morning. “Fast horses make everyone look good.”
Valdivia, 46, has won seven races at the winter-spring meeting.
Valdivia was a top rider in Southern California in the early 2000s before relocating to the Midwest, where he was leading rider at Arlington Park for five consecutive seasons from 2015 through 2019. Valdivia has been back in Southern California since the final months of 2019, lured to the circuit because of his family’s year-round residence and the decline of racing in Illinois.
His career has been highlighted by big race wins on Val Royal in the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Belmont Park and Ruler On Ice in the 2011 Belmont Stakes.
– Steve Andersen
Parnelli gets new rider
Parnelli will have new rider and new equipment as he tries to reverse his recent form when he starts as a longshot in the Grade 1, $750,000 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby on Saturday.
Parnelli worked five furlongs on Monday morning at Santa Anita in a sharp 59.40 seconds under Edwin Maldonado, who will ride Parnelli for the first time in the Santa Anita Derby. Parnelli has been working in blinkers in his recent drills and will race in them for the first time Saturday.
“It looks like they’ve made a difference,” said John Shirreffs, who trains Parnelli and has held the colt in high regard. “If his runs his best race, he can be right there.”
Parnelli, a colt by Quality Road, was an impressive maiden winner going long at Del Mar last fall in his fourth start and looked to be one of the better local 3-year-old prospects of 2021 heading into the Santa Anita meeting. But he was a distant third behind Life Is Good in the Grade 3 Sham on Jan. 2, then beat just one horse when finishing fifth, nearly 20 lengths in arrears, in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis last time out Jan. 30.
Also Monday, the Santa Anita Derby longshot Defunded worked five furlongs in 59.60 for trainer Bob Baffert. Defunded won a maiden sprint going six furlongs on March 6 in his first start since his debut last August.
– Jay Privman