SANTA ANITA LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Juan Hernandez / 23
Umberto Rispoli / 16
Hector Berrios / 12
Kazushi Kimura / 10
Antonio Fresu / 8
Armando Ayuso / 8
Trainers / Wins
Phil D’Amato / 11
Bob Baffert / 9
John Sadler / 7
Doug O’Neill / 7
Jeff Mullins / 6
Michael McCarthy / 6
UPCOMING STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
• $200,000, Grade II Twilight Derby, 3-year-olds, 1⅛ miles on turf
• $85,000 Tokyo City Cup, 3-year-olds and up, 1 mile
Sunday
• $100,000, Grade III Autumn Miss Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 1 mile on turf
LOS ALAMITOS
Sunday
• $1 million, Grade I Golden State Million Futurity, 2-year-olds, 400 yards
• $30,000 Ah Sigh Stakes, 2-year-olds, 400 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Santa Anita goes into the last three days of its fall meet with Juan Hernandez seven wins ahead of Umberto Rispoli in the jockey standings and Phil D’Amato two up on Bob Baffert among trainers. All are prominent in weekend stakes: Hernandez rides 4-5 morning-line favorite Test Score for trainer Graham Motion in the Twilight Derby. Rispoli has 6-5 Pony Express for John Sadler and Hernandez gets 7-5 Privman for Baffert in the Tokyo City Cup on Saturday. Rispoli is on 2-1 Slick for D’Amato and Hernandez takes over 3-1 Warming for Motion in the Autumn Miss on Sunday.
• Santa Anita introduces a new class of race called a “ratings handicap” this weekend amid skepticism about the validity of the “rating numbers,” developed by Equibase, which are being used to group horses and assign weights. The first examples, races 6 and 7 Saturday, show the idea’s potential to pull together fields of horses who haven’t been facing each other before. Race 7 drew horses coming out of class levels ranging from graded stakes to $25,000 claimers.
• The Breeders’ Cup has angered many horseplayers by saying it won’t try to limit computer-assisted wagering at the event Oct. 31-Nov. 1, rejecting host track Del Mar’s policy of closing win pools to huge computer bets two minutes before post in order to head off late odds shifts. The Breeders’ Cup’s huge parimutuel pools make dramatic shifts less likely. But any big odds drops will be a black eye for organizers.
• Happy retirement to Express Train, the 8-year-old who ran often in Santa Anita’s and Del Mar’s biggest races for older horses, winning the Santa Anita Handicap in 2022 and finishing fourth or better in seven other Grade I’s in 2001-2005. Trainer John Shirreffs told the Daily Racing Form that Express Train will go to Kentucky and would make a good hunter-jumper.
• In Los Alamitos quarter-horse racing, 3-year-old OJD Jess a Bug brought an 11-for-11 record in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming into the Azure Three Stakes on Saturday and proved he belonged, beating graded stakes winners in the 220-yard dash with jockey Jose Nicasio for trainer Jesus Nunez and paying $5.
• This Sunday at Los Al, Doodah Cartel (Henry Lopez) comes into the Golden State Million Futurity with the fastest qualifying time as the 2-year-old trained by Paul Jones seeks his first victory in a futurity final. Jess Im Worth It (Ricardo Ramirez), the Ed Burke Million Futurity winner, and Beuteeful (Rodrigo Vallejo), the Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity winner, were second and third fastest in trials.
• Fatal injuries to the allowance-level 4-year-old filly Mirinda in a race at Los Alamitos on Saturday night and the Grade II stakes-placed 5-year-old mare Starry Heavens in training at Santa Anita on Monday marked the 26th and 27th deaths at Los Al, Santa Anita and Del Mar in racing and training, from all causes, since the start of the state’s racing year Dec. 26, according to records on the California Horse Racing Board website. That equals the number of deaths at the Southern California tracks in the same period a year ago, and is slightly more than the average in this span for the past four years.
• A reminder that not all of the world’s best horses will race at the Breeders’ Cup: The 5-year-old sprinter Ka Ying Rising remained No. 1 in Timeform’s global rankings by leaving Hong Kong for the first time and winning his 14th race in a row, a Group 1 in Australia on Saturday. The 4-year-old Calandagan rose to No. 2 by winning his third straight in France and England, the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
— Kevin Modesti