Santa Anita Handicap

The 2024-2025 stakes schedule at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, will feature 79 added-money events over a total of 78 race dates, topped by the GI Santa Anita Handicap and the GI Santa Anita Derby. The Big 'Cap, worth $400,000 in 2024, will offer prize money of $300,000 this year, while the purse of the Santa Anita Derby has been cut to $500,000 from $750,000. On the flipside, the purses on offer for overnight races are above what was offered last spring and autumn, with four allowance and maiden...

A six-liter limited-edition bottle of Luc Belaire Gold Champagne, featuring art from the 2024 Santa Anita Big 'Cap, will be auctioned off online with proceeds benefitting Amplify Horse Racing. The art on the bottle is signed by the artist, Julianna Johnson. Amplify Horse Racing is a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to increase youth access to education, job opportunities, and mentorship in the Thoroughbred horse industry. The auction is open until closing day of the Santa Anita Hollywood Meet June 16. For online bidding, click here.

With a forecast of heavy rains, Santa Anita has shifted its Saturday racing card--which was to feature the GI Santa Anita H.--to Sunday. Heavy rain is expected in the Arcadia area into Saturday afternoon, but Sunday's forecast calls for sunny skies and a high temperature of 62 degrees. The decision to move Saturday's card was done in consultation with Dennis and Robert Moore, who oversee Santa Anita track maintenance, as well as with officials from the CHRB, TOC, CTT and Jockeys' Guild. The Santa Anita H., GI Kilroe Mile, GII...

Santa Anita's Classic Meet will get off to its traditional fast start Dec. 26 with a trio of Grade I events each worth $300,000--the GI Malibu S., GI La Brea S., and GI American Oaks--and the track will continue racing through June 16 with a total of 90 stakes scheduled for the 78 race days. Those 90 stakes races include 53 graded events, with 10 Grade I races highlighted by the 87th running of the $400,000 GI Santa Anita H. Mar. 2 and the $750,000 GI Santa Anita Derby Apr....

The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance will be the beneficiary of a special charity Pick 5 wager featured on CNBC during its next stop on the 1/ST Racing Tour Saturday. The upcoming day of coast-to-coast racing features 13 stakes races including the GI Santa Anita H., as well as the GII Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream Park and the GII San Felipe S. at Santa Anita Park. NBC Sports will produce and air a two-hour telecast from 4-6 p.m. (ET) on CNBC. Five of the six stakes broadcast on the show...

Combatant (Scat Daddy--Border Dispute, by Boundary) was represented by his first foal when Sadie's Song (Unbridled's Song) produced a filly by the late Grade I winner at Waldorf Farm Jan. 21. The filly was bred by McConnell Racing. Combatant won the 2020 GI Santa Anita H. and was second in that year's GII San Pasqual S. in the colors of Hronis Racing and trainer John Sadler. He was also second in the 2018 GIII Southwest S. and third in that year's GII Rebel S. After standing his first season at...

Santa Anita Park will launch its annual winter/spring live racing season on Monday with a 11-race card featuring six stakes races, highlighted by the $300,000 GI Runhappy Malibu S., $300,000 GI American Oaks, and $300,000 GI La Brea S., the last three Grade Is of the year in the U.S. Dubbed this season for the first time as the Classic Meet, racing at Santa Anita will be conducted on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule through Apr. 9, the exceptions being Monday, Jan. 2 for the New Year's Day holiday, Monday, Jan. 16...

Newmarket-based trainer George Boughey is mapping out a 2023 campaign for Royal Ascot winner Missed The Cut (Quality Road), which includes a potential trip to Dubai and possibly America. "There's a chance that he could go to America," Boughey said. "There's a race called the Santa Anita H. on Mar. 4, which is a Grade I on dirt. We'll see, but he's doing very well physically and I always said to [co-owner] Bill Farish and the guys at Lane's End that I didn't want to over-race him this year but...

First year stallion and 2020 G1 Santa Anita H. winner Combatant (Scat Daddy-Border Dispute, by Boundary) has died suddenly from colic in Chile. He had just begun Southern Hemisphere stud duties at Haras Porta Pia. Combatant stood his first year at Rockridge Stud in Hudson, NY. Earner of over a million in his racing career, one which saw him annex the Big Cap and pick up minor honors in six other graded contests, Combatant was a $320,000 yearling purchase by Winchell Thoroughbreds at KEESEP in 2016. He placed in the...

After four Grade I placings in addition to four graded wins, C R K Stable's Express Train (Union Rags) finally got a Grade I to call his own when he captured the Santa Anita H. presented by Yaamava' Resort & Casino in dramatic fashion Saturday. He was also rectifying another overdue omission in giving trainer John Shirreffs, who was nominated to the Hall of Fame this week, his first Big 'Cap win. The victory didn't come easily though, as Express Train had to battle the length of the stretch with...

The undefeated Maxfield (Street Sense) looks to put on yet another show for racing fans Saturday as he invades the West Coast for the first time in the GI Santa Anita H. A debut winner at Churchill in September, the Godolphin homebred romped in Keenland's GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity S. a month later. The early favorite for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, he was scratched after spiking a fever just days before the race. Resurfacing May 23 at Churchill, the bay captured the GIII Matt Winn S., but was knocked...

Life may not be especially Good, just yet--but let's hope that it's at least getting a little better, however slowly. Certainly we must trust that's true of the wider world, as science strives to stem the pandemic. For a margin of our parish going through troubles of its own, equally, no less commitment and tenacity are proving necessary to see out a long road. Two years ago, remember, they couldn't stage the GII San Felipe S. at all after a harrowing spate of catastrophic injuries. A racetrack many of us...