Next week’s race, pitting Bob Baffert-trained horses vs. Stronghold and others, can give California fans something to cheer
Last year’s Santa Anita Derby saw Ramon Vazquez guide Practical Move, right, to victory over Mandarin Hero, middle, and Skinner in the Grade I, $750,000 race April 8, 2023, at Santa Anita Park. As Santa Anita prepares for the biggest race of its winter-spring season, the Santa Anita Derby a week from Saturday, there’s good news and bad news.Undeterred by the burdens of us mere bipeds, an intriguing field of 3-year-olds will venture out of their stalls for the $750,000, Grade I race April 6.
For various reasons, it’s less likely fans will see the winner of the May 4 Kentucky Derby in the Santa Anita Derby than in one of the other major Triple Crown preps being run this Saturday and next at tracks in the United States and Dubai. And there are clouds of controversy. Horses from Baffert’s barn, which has produced six Kentucky Derby winners and two Triple Crown winners, are ineligible for the Derby because of the eccentric decision by Churchill Downs toBaffert’s top 3-year-old, undefeated Nysos, is sidelined. But his top active 3-year-old, Muth, second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November beforein January, is the 8-5 morning-line favorite in the Arkansas Derby this Saturday.
More on the nose, there was what came after Southern California racing was hit by the closure of Hollywood Park in late 2013 and the announcement of Fairplex’s demise in early 2014: In those ashes, a colt named American Pharoah was stirring, growing into the 2015 Triple Crown winner. And there was the year I think of now.
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