SANTA ANITA LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Umberto Rispoli / 11
Juan Hernandez / 10
Hector Berrios / 7
Armando Ayuso / 7
Kazushi Kimura / 4
Tyler Baze / 3
Trainers / Wins
Phil D’Amato / 10
Bob Baffert / 5
John Sadler / 4
Richard Mandella / 3
Jeff Mullins / 3
Richard Baltas / 3
Michael McCarthy / 3
UPCOMING STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
• $100,000 California Flag Handicap, California-bred 3-year-olds and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf
Sunday
• $100,000 California Distaff Handicap, Cal-bred fillies and mares, 3 and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf
Monday
• $80,000 Swingtime Stakes, fillies and mares, 3 and up, 1 mile on turf
LOS ALAMITOS
Saturday
• $100,000, Grade I Robert Boinface Los Alamitos Championship, quarter-horse 3-year-olds and up, 440 yards
• $35,000 Sound Dash Handicap, quarter-horse fillies and mares, 3 and up, 350 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Two weeks of preps for the Breeders’ Cup put California horses in stronger position than usual going into the championship races Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Del Mar. In the 2024 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, no Californians went off as favorites, and in 2023 at Santa Anita, two did. But as of Thursday, odds posted by handicappers and gambling sites have California-trained horses favored in as many as five of this year’s 14 Breeders’ Cup races. The Daily Racing Form’s authoritative David Aragona favors Bob Baffert’s Explora at 3-1 in the Juvenile Fillies; Baffert’s Nysos 3-1 (just ahead of John Sadler’s Full Serrano) in the Dirt Mile; Baffert’s Seismic Beauty 5-2 (with Baffert’s Cavalieri next) in the Distaff; Richard Baltas’ Ag Bullet 7-2 (ahead of Phil D’Amato’s Motorious) in the Turf Sprint; and Richard Mandella’s Kopion 5-2 (followed by five more Californians) in the Filly and Mare Sprint. In the Classic, meanwhile, Aragona rates Californians no better than mid-pack behind New York-based, 8-5 favorite Sovereignty; Michael McCarthy’s Journalism is 10-1 and John Shirreffs’ Baeza 15-1.
• Santa Anita’s two downhill-sprint stakes this weekend spotlight good California-breds. Bing Crosby Stakes-winning 7-year-old Lovesick Blues (Geovanni Franco riding) is 5-2 on the morning line against 3-year-old Shea Brennan (Umberto Rispoli) at 3-1 and 5-year-old Man O Rose (Edwin Maldonado) at 7-2 in the California Flag. Four-year-old fillies Grand Slam Smile (William Antongeorgi), Sneaker (Rispoli) and Bit’s Tiger Magic (Juan Hernandez) meet in the California Distaff. Man O Rose trainer Jeff Mullins is eyeing the Cal-breds crown after the retirements of The Chosen Vron and Kings River Knight. “Hopefully we can take over the top spot there,” Mullins said. “He’s sure capable of it.”
• Mirco Demura’s win aboard Richard Mandella-trained 2-year-old filly Brave Deb in the Grade III Surfer Girl on Sunday was the 46-year-old Italian jockey’s first stakes victory at Santa Anita and first graded-stakes win in the United States. Mandella, who knew Demura from his first U.S. foray in the 1990s, expects more of this. “He’s always had talent (and has) come back with world experience,” Mandella said. “I think he’s still figuring out a little of this out, our layout. He just need better shots (horses).”
• Santa Anita bettors can chase carryovers Friday in the super high 5 on race 9 ($35,706), pick 6 on races 4-9 ($45,583), Sunset Pick Six ($54,236) and Coast-to-Coast Pick 5. The last two link Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park races.
• Jockey Kent Desormeaux was suspended for five racing days starting Oct. 18 for Hey Demps’ role in an Oct. 3 accident at Santa Anita. Blue Oasis clipped heels and fell with rider Jeremy Laprida, and Lita Way hit Blue Oasis and dropped Kyle Frey. Hey Demps was disqualified from second to eighth. Stewards said Desormeaux, a Hall of Famer, was suspended for “failure to make the proper effort to maintain a straight course.”
• Jeriko, the 2024 winner, will take on Empressum and other Grade I-winning quarter horses in Saturday’s Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship. Seven-year-old Empressum and 5-year-old Jeriko have met five times, Empressum winning three times, once via Jeriko’s DQ for interference.
• Doodah Cartel’s 19.859 seconds for 400 yards was the fastest time in Saturday’s trials for the Oct. 26 Golden State Million Futurity at Los Al. The 2-year-old colt will go for his first futurity victory, with Henry Lopez riding for trainer Paul Jones.
• Jeff Siegel, the prominent Southern California handicapper and horse owner who died at 74 last Saturday, will be remembered in a funeral at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 13, at Mount Sinai Simi Valley.
• The deaths of the 2-year-old quarter-horse filly Warm Springs after winning a trial Saturday at Los Alamitos and unraced 3-year-old Big Nash after colliding with another horse in training Monday at Santa Anita were the 24th and 25th at Los Al, Santa Anita and Del Mar from musculoskeletal and other causes in racing and training since the start of the Southern California racing season Dec. 26. By unofficial count, that’s slightly fewer deaths than were recorded at those tracks in the same span in 2023 or 2024, and slightly more than the average since the California Horse Racing Board began posting fatality data.
— Kevin Modesti