Racing will return at Santa Anita on Friday, March 29, following a lengthy hiatus due to a rash of breakdowns since opening day. The track has been closed for racing since March 3, but has an eight-race card on tap for Friday, including the grade 2, $200,000 San Luis Rey Stakes on the turf. It is one of several stakes races that have been rescheduled for this season, and drew a field of six.
Saturday’s March 30 card, which will be drawn Wednesday, has five strong stakes races, including two grade 1s. The $400,000 Beholder Mile (G1) and the $400,000 Frank E. Kilroe Mile (G1T) top the day, supported by the $200,000 San Carlos Stakes (G2), then $100,000 Santa Ana Stakes (G3T), and the $100,000 San Simeon Stakes (G3T).
Then Sunday’s card rounds out March with another three stakes, the $100,000 Sensational Star, the $100,000 Irish O’Brien (both down the hillside turf course), and the $75,000 Santana Mile.
The following weekend, April 6, was already slated to be a blockbuster with the $1 million Santa Anita Derby (G1), the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks (G1), the $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes (G2), the $200,000 Evening Jewel Stakes for Cal-breds, the $200,000 Echo Eddie Stakes for Cal-breds, and the $150,000 Providencia Stakes (G3) on the grass. But the prestigious Santa Anita Handicap (G1), worth $600,000, has been moved from its early March position to that day, making it one of the best cards in the nation so far this season.
The final stakes race of the early part of the meet is the $100,000 Las Flores Stakes (G3) for female sprinters on April 7. Some of the stakes races this weekend will take a hit with the Dubai World Cup card happening at the same time, but because of training disruptions and minor issues, some horses that may have gone didn’t make the trip anyway and will be represented at Santa Anita over the next two weeks. After these two weeks, the next huge weekend at the Arcadia, California track will be May 25 – 27, with eight graded stakes over three days.
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