Santa Anita Park

With continued heat advisories in the region, and a forecasted high of 98 degrees Saturday, officials at Santa Anita Park have instituted a series of safety measures for people and horses. With the weather reaching a scorching 100 in some places and Sunday calling for 91 degree heat before the temperatures return to the low 70s Monday, racing officials have included in the heat protocols ice buckets and hoses throughout the grounds for convenient access. Riders will be legged up in the saddling barn and horses will go directly to...

The sun is shining and the birds are singing, which means that spring has sprung and hopefully cold blasts are fixed over yonder. This kind of weather propagates the condition known to many as Derby fever, which technically has no definable cure. So, while you're tinkering with mint julep recipes or heading to the dry cleaners with your seersucker to keep the vapors in check, maybe what you need is to take a look at the weekend's graded stakes slate. The races are chock full of options, so let's not...

This past weekend we were three weeks out from America's most historic and important horse race, and all was quiet on the GI Kentucky Derby front. Too quiet, in fact. Compared to pro and college team sports, which have expanded their wild-card and play-in formats to capitalize on the immediacy of games with win-or-go-home playoff berths on the line, the lead-up to the Derby has silently shifted in the opposite direction. Instead of maximizing the relevancy of making the final cut as the sport's main event nears, racing rolls out...

With the Sunday conclusion to Santa Anita's Classic Meet, the 2024-25 season enjoyed significant gains in handle, attendance, field size, and safety, the track announced Monday morning. The all-source handle topped $510-million with players from around the world responding favorably to the modifications to the wagering menu. The handle on just Santa Anita's races increased five per cent from the last Classic Meet. Opening day Dec. 26 brought the third largest opening day handle in the venue's 90-year history, and the final three-day weekend claimed more than $40.6-million in wagers...

Goal Oriented (Not This Time), carrying powerhouse connections and a speedy work tab into his debut, made even-money look like a gift when he glided home a 3 1/4-length debut winner for trainer Bob Baffert and the partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Dianne Bashor, Determined Stables, Robert Masterson, Tom Ryan, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan Sunday evening at Santa Anita. The dark bay colt, a $425,000 Keeneland September yearling acquisition, trailed the field and was climbing up the backstretch, but once he got his...

Saturday's Santa Anita Derby day showed large increases over 2024 with the all sources handle totaling $22,388,003 and wagering on just the marquee race up by nearly 24 per cent, according to a press release by the track. Bolstered by a big turnout from the Derby Day 5K, the on-track attendance came in at 34,312, a seven per cent jump from last season. It was the largest turnout since 2018. Both the all sources handle and on track attendance are expected to finish the Classic Meet Sunday up by noteworthy...

After a flurry of activity this past week which appeared to breathe life into the idea of Pleasanton racetrack remaining open for training and stabling, potentially even for a race-meet this summer, the facility looks set to end its current tenure as a state licensed auxiliary training and stabling center midnight Tuesday. "Please be aware that as of March 25 at midnight, Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton will no longer be an approved auxiliary training facility of Santa Anita Park. The agreement between the Southern Stabling and Vanning Committee (TOC...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of Lady Claypoole in the Santa Ana Stakes at Santa Anita earlier in March.   Santa Ana Stakes For Lady Claypoole Abbondanza Racing and Omar Aldabbagh's Lady Claypoole (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) earned her first stakes win in the GIII Santa Ana Stakes at Santa Anita on Mar. 15 (video). Trained by Richard Baltas, the 5-year-old mare was bred by Aston House Stud. The eighth...

Led by leading scorer Drayden Van Dyke, a team of Santa Anita jockeys defeated the Holy Angels Middle School basketball team Thursday night to break a lengthy losing streak in the 55th annual charity game. With coach Luis Jauregui at the helm and former jockey Darrell Haire serving as assistant, the jockeys came out on top with a score of 28-22. The team consisted of Van Dyke, Kent Desormeaux, Edwin Maldonado, Armando Ayuso, Abel Lezcano, Ricky Gonzalez, Diego Herrara, Geovanni Franco, Kevin Orozco and Sofia Barandela. Prior to the game,...

GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up MGISP Vodka With a Twist (Thousand Words) is reportedly on track to make her 2025 debut in the GII Fasig-Tipton Santa Anita Oaks after a good drill Monday morning at Santa Anita. Most recently clocked in a five furlong move in :59.80 (4/71), the multiple Grade I-placed filly has been on the sidelines since running third behind GISW Tenma (Nyquist) and SW & GSP Look Forward (Bolt d'Oro) in the GII Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos Dec. 7. "I was very happy with the...

That the figures recently released by the Jockey Club from its Equine Injury Database showed another significant drop in the number of fatalities was good news, but hardly surprising news. The numbers seem to get better every year. But dig deeper into the data presented by the Jockey Club and there is a number that is quite surprising and encouraging. In 2024, dirt tracks were almost as safe as synthetic tracks. There were 1.18 fatalities per 1,000 starts on the dirt, which came very close to the number in the...

10th-Santa Anita, $68,500, Msw, 3-15, 3yo, f, 6fT, 1:10.39, gd, 1/2 length. MISLEADING (f, 3, Not This Time--Heart of Paradise {GSP}, by More Than Ready) executed a perfectly-timed rush to graduate in-style. A 10-1 shot here, the Keeneland September grad was in no hurry when it came to exiting the gate. Biding her time at the back of the field, the filly seemed out of it by the far turn, but the 3-year-old was gearing up for a late push. Misleading tipped towards the center of the course at the...