Big day on tap at Santa Anita
San Felipe Stakes begins run to Derby
The Road to the Kentucky Derby goes through Arcadia today.
In what shapes up as the toughest Santa Anita Derby prep race to date, seven 3-year-olds are scheduled to go postward in the $300,000 Grade II San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita.
Mr. Kentucky Derby, Bob Baffert, trains two of them — 4-5 morning-line favorite Life Is Good and Medina Spirit, the 7-2 second choice in the 1 1/16-mile race that offers 50 Derby qualifying points to the winner and 20 to the runner-up.
The San Felipe, which Baffert has won a record seven times, is only one of five stakes races on today’s 11-race card, which begins at noon and also includes the 84th running of the historic Santa Anita Handicap, the $400,000 Grade I Frank E. Kilroe Mile, the $200,000 Grade II San Carlos Stakes and $100,000 China Doll Stakes.
In addition to Baffert’s talented duo, impressive maiden winners Dream Shake and The Great One, along with Roman Centurian, will try to enhance their Kentucky Derby résumés as the First Saturday in May draws nearer.
Dream Shake, trained by Peter Eurton, won his debut by 4 ¾ lengths at Santa Anita on Feb. 7 as a 20-1 longshot with Joel Rosario aboard. Rosario, who will soon be off to ride at Keeneland, retains the mount on the Twirling Candy colt.
“It’s a very salty race, but we’ve had expectations for him,” Eurton told Ed Golden of Santa Anita publicity. “He’s always done things right, always shown stamina and done things pretty well within himself.”
Dream Shake is the lone horse in the field that will
be trying two turns for the first time.
“We were always hopeful, but until they put it out there in the afternoon, it’s all hope,” Eurton said. “On the other hand, you have a pretty good idea when they can’t run. But in his case, he acted like he was going to be OK.”
Trainer Doug O’Neill hopes The Great One, named for hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, continues to develop and is able to give him his third Kentucky Derby winner following I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016.
The Great One, a son of Nyquist, lost by a nose to Spielberg in the Grade II Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19 and then came back to break his maiden by 14 lengths on Jan. 23 at Santa Anita.
Life Is Good, whose regular rider is Hall of Famer Mike Smith, is 2 for 2 and will stretch out an extra sixteenth
of a mile after his victory by three-quarters of a length over stablemate Medina Spirit in the Grade III Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 2.
Maxfield is the 8-5 morning-line favorite in the $400,000 Grade I Big ‘Cap, but he figures to face staunch challenges from San Pasqual Stakes winner Express Train (3-1) and Independence Hall, the 4-1 third choice who finished third in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park as a 27-1 longshot in his most recent start.
The Kilroe Mile looks like a wide-open turf race on paper. The 10-horse field includes six horses from out of state, but local standouts Smooth Like Strait and Hit the Road look like two of the main contenders.
Trainer Richard Mandella is hoping Extra Hope, an impressive winner of the Grade III Native Diver Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 21, can rebound in the San Carlos, a 7-furlong event that drew a field of nine.
Jockey Flavien Prat, the meet’s leading rider who recently changed agents, has mounts in all 11 races Saturday, including 30-1 longshot None Above the Law in the San Felipe and Independence Hall in the Big ‘Cap.