Santa Anita

A time honored tradition dating back more than five decades, the 54th annual Santa Anita Jockeys vs. Holy Angels Middle School Charity Basketball Game will be held Monday, Feb. 26 at La Salle High School in Pasadena, Ca. The La Salle High gymnasium will open to the public at 6 p.m. and tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Admission tickets will be available on-site and a $5 donation will generate proceeds to the Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund (PDJF) and Holy Angels athletics. A distinguished group of Hall of Fame jockeys...

The third annual Horse Racing Women's Summit will be held at Santa Anita Park Sept. 25-26 the group announced Thursday, with satellite events at Keeneland, Saratoga, Del Mar and the 2024 Global Symposium on Racing and Gaming. The HRWS, founded in 2022, brings speakers, networking opportunities and events together from across the horse racing industry. "Our executive committee and volunteers are working hard to pull together another series of great events across the country in addition to growing the membership and tackling the other priorities identified at the 2023 Summit,"...

Last June, Pat Cummings, executive director of the National Thoroughbred Alliance and former executive director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, issued a stark warning about the encroaching impacts from Computer Assisted Wagering (CAW) to the men and women trying to forge a living through horse racing in the Golden State. CAW players constitute a small group of mostly anonymous, high-volume gamblers with an outsized impact on the betting markets--including in California--due to their use of sophisticated wagering technologies and the inducements offered to them in the form of attractive rates...

The Santa Anita stewards on Sunday issued trainer Dan Blacker a 90-day suspension and a $15,000 fine for 527 separate incidents of failing to undertake the necessary pre-workout veterinary examination reporting process for horses in his care. The three-month suspension is scheduled to run from Feb. 26, 2024, to May 25, 2024. During that time, Blacker will be denied access to all licensed premises in California. Last October, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) charged Blacker with failing to comply with regulations requiring that a horse undergoes a veterinary exam...

GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner White Abarrio (Race Day) and GI Pegasus World Cup victor National Treasure (Quality Road) are scheduled to leave Santa Anita for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Tuesday in advance of their expected next starts in the Saudi Cup Feb. 24. Per Santa Anita Stable Superintendent Jeff Metz, Richard Mandella will send Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah) and potentially Planetario (Brz) (Il Doge {Brz}) for starts on the Saudi Cup undercard. After spending nearly 12 hours in the holding barn at Santa Anita, the Saudi-bound contingent will leave for...

Looking every bit a 'TDN Rising Star', Kinza (Carpe Diem) stepped up in class, posted a second-consecutive 96 Beyer and took home her first graded win with a professional gate-to-wire performance at 'The Great Race Place' on Saturday afternoon. To kick start her career over the same surface Dec. 29, the chestnut became a meteoric star when she won by an eye-catching 7 1/2 lengths for trainer Bob Baffert. Putting in quality workouts since, the filly was well-supported at the windows as the 1-1 choice over rival Kopion (Omaha Beach)....

Straight No Chaser (h, 5, Speightster--Margarita Friday, by Johannesburg), unraced since posting a powerhouse, front-running victory in the GIII Maryland Sprint S. on last spring's GI Preakness S. undercard, is on the comeback trail for trainer Dan Blacker. After stopping the clock for six furlongs in a razor sharp 1:08.27 and earning a career-best 107 Beyer Speed Figure in that 7 1/2-length decision at Pimlico, an undisclosed party agreed to purchase a minority interest in the MyRacehorse colorbearer. The deal, however, was called off after a positron emission tomography (PET)...

The Tampa Road to the Kentucky Derby heats up Saturday afternoon, as a full field of 12 sophomore males is set to face the starter for the $250,000 GIII Sam F. Davis S., with 42 Kentucky Derby qualifying points (20-10-6-4-2) up for grabs. When Litigate (Blame) took out the 2023 renewal, he was giving trainer Todd Pletcher a seventh victory in the Davis, having won the race for the first time in 2006 with Bluegrass Cat (Storm Cat). 'TDN Rising Star' Agate Road (Quality Road) will be the more-fancied of...

With training suspended since Sunday due to historic rainfall from a series of storms, Santa Anita Park, in consultation with its horsemen, postponed Friday's nine-race card to give time for horses to return to a normal routine before this weekend's races. The Friday races will be offered back next Thursday. Per CHRB rules, they will be re-drawn when entries are taken this Saturday. "With training suspended for the last four days, per the CHRB protocols only joggers will be allowed on Thursday and we return to regular training Friday morning,"...

Things may not have gone strictly according to script for undefeated 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos (Nyquist) in Saturday's GIII Robert B. Lewis S., as he was perhaps a half-step slowly away, and with a trio of rivals hellbent on being part of the pace battle, was forced to sit farther off the speed than he'd done in either of his previous towering victories. At the end of the day, it mattered very little, as the Bob Baffert trainee came with a bold run three wide into the lane and went...

TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack provides his analysis for Saturday's quartet of GI Kentucky Derby prep races. GIII Holy Bull S. - Last year's jaw-dropping GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) finds a perfect landing spot to launch his sophomore season versus seven overmatched rivals. Not worth trying to beat him here, even if he's closer to 1-9 than his 3-5 morning-line quote. I can't see him defeating the recently crowned 2023 champion 2-year-old, but how about Domestic Product (Practical Joke) to...

With a forecast that calls for more than two inches of rainfall Sunday, officials at Santa Anita Park have preemptively canceled live racing scheduled for that afternoon. The program was to feature the GIII $100,000 Las Virgenes S. for 3-year-old fillies and the GIII San Marcos S. for older male turf horses. Those two races have been rescheduled for next Saturday, Feb. 10, with the races to be redrawn Wednesday, Feb. 7. Saturday's forecast calls for no such inclement weather and racing will go on as planned. Four graded contests...