Nothing Like You, with jockey Frankie Dettori aboard, upsets heavily favored stablemate Kinza to win the Santa Anita Oaks on April 6, 2024, at Santa Anita Park. (Benoit Photo)
SANTA ANITA LEADERS
(Through Thursday)
Jockeys / Wins
Juan Hernandez / 24
Antonio Fresu / 24
Kyle Frey / 19
Umberto Rispoli / 18
Edwin Maldonado / 18
Trainers / Wins
Phil D’Amato / 15
Steve Knapp / 12
Doug O’Neill / 12
Mark Glatt / 11
John Sadler / 10
WEEKEND STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
• $200,000, Grade II Summertime Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1 1/16 miles
Sunday
• $100,000 Affirmed Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1 1/16 miles
LOS ALAMITOS
Sunday
• $30,000 Fred Scane Handicap, 2-year-old quarter horses, 300 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Nothing Like You, 7-1 when she won the Santa Anita Oaks in April, will be a much shorter price in a short field when she goes for her fifth win in a six-race stretch in the Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita on Saturday. Nothing Like You (with Juan Hernandez taking the reins from Frankie Dettori) must catch Bob Baffert stablemate Show Card (Mike Smith).
• Golden Gate Fields runs the final races in its 83-year history Sunday. The closure is the work of the Stronach Group, which also owns Santa Anita and hopes to consolidate California thoroughbred racing in the south of the state. Pleasanton opens Friday, June 14, for the four-week Alameda County Fair meet, and that track becomes the hub of Bay Area racing with a season beginning in October.
• Los Alamitos begins its weekend with a $68,174 carryover in the pick-six for Saturday night’s quarter-horse races.
• Southern California barns have no horses in the Belmont Stakes but are well-represented on the undercard Saturday at Saratoga. Bob Baffert has Prince of Monaco (7-2 favorite) and Imagination (10-1), and Doug O’Neill has Vlahos (6-1), in the Woody Stephens Stakes for 3-year-olds. Baffert has National Treasure (8-5 second choice to 6-5 White Abarrio) in the Metropolitan Handicap.
• Santa Anita announcer Frank Mirahmadi is calling the races at Saratoga’s mini-meet Thursday through Sunday. Filling in at Santa Anita will be the familiar voice of Alan Buchdahl, the former Oak Tree and Hollywood Park announcer and trusty backup.
• Dettori warmed up for Saratoga by recording a three-race, all-stakes winning streak on the East Coast last week, prevailing in photo finishes with First World War ($8.80) in the Penn Mile and Poolside With Slim ($5.60) in the Penn Oaks at Penn National on Friday and Twirling Point ($5.20) in the Jersey Derby at Monmouth Park on Saturday. Dettori wrapped up his stint at Santa Anita in May but said he expects to ride at Del Mar a bit this summer and has a “good possibility” of returning to Santa Anita next winter.
• Justify scored his biggest victory yet as a sire when City of Troy won the English Derby at Epsom on Saturday, with Ryan Moore riding for trainer Aidan O’Brien. Baffert, who trained Justify to the 2018 Triple Crown, tweeted congratulations to O’Brien, calling City of Troy “superb” and Justify “a brilliant racehorse who continues to stamp himself as a spectacular sire.” Based at Ashford Stud in Kentucky, Justify ranks sixth among North American stallions in progeny earnings this year, and first among horses who entered stud in 2019.
• Santa Anita’s nearly six-month season ends next week with Thursday through Sunday racing, capped by the 85th running of the San Juan Capistrano Stakes on closing day, June 16. Los Alamitos’ three-week Los Angeles County Fair thoroughbred meet runs Saturday, June 22, to Sunday, July 7.
— Kevin Modesti