Horse racing notes: C Z Rocket retired at age 10

C Z Rocket and jockey Luis Saez head for the winner’s circle after the Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Sept. 27, 2020, at Santa Anita. (Benoit Photo)

SANTA ANITA LEADERS

(Through Thursday)

Jockeys / Wins

Flavien Prat / 32

Juan Hernandez / 32

Antonio Fresu / 26

Frankie Dettori / 19

Hector Berrios / 13

Umberto Rispoli / 13

Trainers / Wins

Mark Glatt / 18

Doug O’Neill / 16

Phil D’Amato / 16

Steve Knapp / 14

Bob Baffert / 13

WEEKEND STAKES AT SANTA ANITA

Saturday

• $100,000 Santa Ana Stakes (Grade III), fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up, 1¼ miles on turf

Sunday

• $100,000 Wishing Well Stakes, fillies and mares, 4 and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf

LOS ALAMITOS

Saturday

• $35,000 Denim N Diamonds Handicap, quarter-horse mares, 4-year-olds and up, 350 yards

Sunday

• $125,000 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes, quarter horses, 3-year-olds, 350 yards

DOWN THE STRETCH

• Sierra Leone was bet down to a 6-1 favorite in the fourth Kentucky Derby futures pool after the Chad Brown-trained colt and rider Tyler Gaffalione rallied to a half-length win over a deep field in last Saturday’s Risen Star Stakes in Louisiana. Sierra Leone and Risen Star runner-up Track Phantom rose to second and third in the NTRA 3-year-olds rankings. Nysos is No. 1 and Muth No. 4, but both are ineligible for the May 4 Kentucky Derby because of Churchill Downs’ sanctions against trainer Bob Baffert.

• The next Derby steppingstone, the Rebel Stakes in Arkansas on Saturday, looks like a soft touch for Timberlake and jockey Cristian Torres as trainer Brad Cox sends the Champagne Stakes winner out for his first start since a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

• The Santa Ana highlights local weekend stakes action. Khinjani and jockey Frankie Dettori can run down Linda’s Gift and Tiago Pereira if the British-bred filly moves forward off a win in her U.S. debut for Santa Anita-leading trainer Mark Glatt.

• Echo Zulu, champion 2-year-old filly of 2021, was euthanized after injuring a leg in a stall accident while recovering from the foreleg fracture that kept her out of last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, trainer Steve Asmussen told the Daily Racing Form.

• C Z Rocket, winner of the Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar and the Santa Anita Sprint Championship in 2020, has been retired following a sixth-place finish at the allowance level in Arkansas on Monday, trainer Peter Miller announced. C Z Rocket is a 10-year-old gelding.

• Betting favorites are winning an enormous 45.7% of races at Santa Anita this season, including 12 of 18 on Saturday and Sunday, and seven of the past eight stakes races.

• Upcoming: The Santa Anita Handicap and the San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds are among four graded stakes scheduled for Saturday, March 2. Reserved seat sales begin Monday for Santa Anita Derby day on April 6, featuring three graded stakes.