LOS ALAMITOS LEADERS
(Final)
Jockeys / Wins
Edgar Payeras / 6
Kyle Frey / 6
Kazushi Kimura / 6
Antonio Fresu / 5
Ricardo Ramirez / 4
Ricardo Gonzalez / 3
Tyler Baze / 3
Diego Herrera / 3
Trainers / Wins
Doug O’Neill / 6
Jesus Uranga / 4
Michael McCarthy / 3
Peter Miller / 3
(7 tied) / 2
UPCOMING STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
• $300,000, Grade I Goodwood Stakes, 3-year-olds and up, 1⅛ miles
• $200,000, Grade II John Henry Turf Championship, 3 and up, 1¼ miles on turf
• $200,000, Grade II City of Hope Mile, 3 and up, 1 mile on turf
• $200,000, Grade II Eddie D Stakes, 3 and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf
• $100,000, Grade III John C. Harris Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, about 6½ furlongs on turf
Sunday
• $200,000, Grade II Santa Anita Sprint Championship, 3 and up, 6 furlongs
• $200,000, Grade II Zenyatta Stakes, fillies and mares, 3 and up, 1 1/16 mile
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Jockey Paco Lopez, scheduled to ride at Santa Anita on Saturday, apparently will have to be replaced after being suspended for six months by the national Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and then denied a stay while he appeals. Lopez, who leads the nation with 300 wins this year, was suspended for six months starting Tuesday for repeatedly violating terms of his reinstatement from an earlier 46-day suspension for misusing his whip on a horse. Lopez, 39, rides mainly in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida, and won Grade I stakes in California with Mo Forza in the 2019 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar and Roy H in the 2018 Santa Anita Sprint Championship. He was booked to ride morning-line favorites First Mission in the Goodwood and Reef Runner in the Eddie D on Saturday.
• Santa Anita confirmed it will follow Del Mar’s lead and implement a two-minutes-to-post cutoff on win betting by computer-assisted outfits at its Sept. 26-Oct. 26 meet. Del Mar adopted the policy after the first two weeks of its summer meet were plagued by huge odds changes in the seconds before races. Santa Anita said morning-line odds will again be set by the website Horse Racing Nation using AI and human input.
• Baeza’s 2¼-length win with jockey Hector Berrios in the Grade I Pennsylvania Derby on Saturday lifted the Santa Anita-based 3-year-old to No. 8 (from No. 23) in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s overall rankings and No. 7 (from No. 9) in the Longines-sponsored Breeders’ Cup Classic contenders poll. Ahead of John Shirreffs-trained Baeza in the Classic rankings are Sovereignty, Fierceness, Sierra Leone, Mindframe, Journalism and Forever Young. The $7 million Classic is the main event of the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.
• Locked, 0 for 2 since his Santa Anita Handicap win in March, switches to jockey John Velazquez as the 4-year-old trained by Todd Pletcher runs in a small field in the Grade II Woodward Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday. The Woodward is New York’s traditional final prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The last horse to win both was Locked’s sire, Gun Runner, in 2017.
• Larry Gilligan, the popular California jockey and racing official, died Saturday at age 88 in Big Pine, Calif. Gilligan was well into his 50s and competing sporadically when he rode his last winner in California in 1991 at Los Alamitos and his last winner overall in 1993 at Remington Park in Oklahoma. A memory of Gilligan’s enthusiasm for riding: He was holding court with reporters at Santa Anita in 1991 after a maiden-claiming victory, his first in more than a year. A much younger jockey joked, “What did you win, the Santa Anita Handicap?” Gilligan replied, “It felt like it to me.”
• Brian Hernandez Jr., regular rider of defending Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna and 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan, sounds likely to miss the Breeders’ Cup after falling in a race at Churchill Downs on Sunday and suffering rib fractures, a lung puncture and liver laceration. The jockey, who’ll be 40 on Nov. 3, had surgery Tuesday to stabilize the ribs, he announced on X above a photo of him in the hospital wearing a breathing tube and a Thorpedo Anna cap.
• Santa Anita, Del Mar and Los Alamitos have reported increases in attendance, betting and field size this year. Some see this as vindication for California thoroughbred racing’s “single-circuit structure” or “consolidation” following the closure of Golden Gate Fields in 2024 and cancellation of northern fair meets. Not so fast: At the California Horse Racing Board meeting Sept. 18 in Sacramento, deputy executive director Cynthia Alameda said betting handle from all sources at state tracks was down 4% in January-August compared to the same period in 2024. The changes mean California racing is entertaining fewer people in fewer places than it used to.
— Kevin Modesti