#La Brea

The winter campaign of the 2023 Santa Anita horse racing season is in full swing. The track, one of the nation's best, will host the Grade III $200000 La Canada Stakes on January 15, and Daniel Benjamin has the preview and prediction here. The La Canada is a one and one-sixteenth-mile race for 4-year-olds and upward fillies and mares. The $200000…

Trainer Bob Baffert holds a strong hand when he sends out the favored pair of Ganadora and Under the Stars in a field of six older females in the Grade 3 La Canada Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita. Ganadora is the more lightly raced of the duo, but will likely be the post-time choice. The $1 million yearling purchase pushed a strong pace before…

Three-year-old dirt fillies get one last chance to compete at the top level against their own age and sex in the $300000 La Brea Stakes (G1), which runs Monday, December 26 at Santa Anita! The race drew a field of eight, four of whom are already graded winners and four who seek those honors for the first time in their career. The field is led by…

Speed Boat Beach winning the Cecil B. DeMille Dec. 4, 2022 at Del Mar. (Benoit Photo) Stable Notes By Victor Ryan ARCADIA, CALIF.- Speed Boat Beach, a two-time stakes winner on turf, was scratched from today's Grade III Sham Stakes going a mile on dirt by trainer Bob Baffert. Speed Boat Beach was the 5-2 co-second choice on the morning line Baffert…

As we close the curtain on another year, let's take a look back at the top five horse racing stories of 2022: Simply put, he's a generational horse. It's a shame we didn't have the opportunity to watch him race at 5, but there's really no words to describe what he accomplished during the time he did race. Consider: 6 for 6, four Grade I victories,…

ARCADIA - Taiba will be favored when a field of nine enters the starting gate for Monday's Malibu Stakes on opening day of Santa Anita's 47-day Classic Meet. The $300000 Malibu is one of three Grade I races, along with the La Brea and the American Oaks, on the 11-race card that begins at 11 a.m. There are also three Grade II events scheduled,…

Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Trainer Bob Baffert celebrated Christmas a day late with five winners on Santa Anita's Opening Day program Monday, likely boosting one of those horses to an Eclipse Award and perhaps setting up another for a repeat raid on the rich races in the Middle East. It was a star-studded day in front of a big crowd at Santa Anita, as Juan…

Monday, December 26, 2022 at 6:14 pm |Back to: Top News Fun to Dream (inside) holds off Awake at Midnyte | Benoit Jill Baffert and Connie Pageler's Fun to Dream, beaten just once now in six trips to the post, scored her first graded victory with a determined win in the GI La Brea S. at Santa Anita Monday. Fun to Dream shadowed the pacesetters three…

Ramon Vazquez / 7 Edwin Maldonado / 5 TRAINERS / WINS Philip D'Amato / 8 Doug O'Neill / 7 Bob Baffert / 6 Peter Miller / 5 George Papaprodromou / 4 Friday • $175000 Real Good Deal Stakes, 3-year-olds bred in CA, 7 furlongs Saturday • $400000 Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 1 1/16 miles • $150000 California…

Bobby Flay's homebred Pizza Bianca (#4 outside) under Jose Ortiz on her way to winning the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico May 20, 2022, and earning Black Type. (Maryland Jockey Club photo) By Maribeth Kalinich There's a phenomenon happening in North America. Turf races are booming. That is in part thanks to more European horses coming across the pond to…

While much of the country is suffering through extreme cold and winter storms, officials at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., are preparing for their traditional day-after-Christmas opening on Monday, Dec. 26. Temperatures are expected in the upper 70s and there is no rain in the forecast for Monday, though a storm is expected to roll into…

The final chance for three-year-old dirt males to vie for Grade 1 glory before turning four and having to face older horses comes Monday, December 26, at Santa Anita. The race covers seven furlongs on the Santa Anita main track, and drew a field of nine horses. As usual for such a late-season three-year-old race, it drew a mix of classy locals and…

The headline for opening day of the Classic Meet at Santa Anita is the return of Taiba. Undoubtedly talented, the horse seems to be rebounding off of a rough Derby. Post: 11:00 AM PT; $200k Santa Anita Mathis Mile S. going 1 mile on turf; Entries: 7 #1 BALNIKHOV (2-1) gets the top selection. He goes out for the D'Amato barn and gets Gaffalione in…

This Inside Track to the Malibu Stakes wagering guide gives you an inside look at the six stakes races running at Santa Anita Park on December 26, 2022, including the $300000 RUNHAPPY Malibu Stakes (G1). With a win in the Malibu, the Bob Baffert trained Taiba could make his case for 3-year-old Male of the Year at the Eclipse Awards in January. Can…

Horse racing fans get the holiday gift they really want - albeit a day late - when the SoCal winter racing season celebrates its traditional post-Christmas opening day on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita Park. That date marks the start of a new season in racing at the Arcadia, Calif., track and kicks off one of the country's premier annual winter/spring race…

In addition to a full menu of world-class racing highlighted by six graded stakes, Santa Anita's Classic Meet opening day, Monday, Dec. 26, will offer fans a number of promotions, including the track's traditional wall calendar, a magnificent Flightline print giveaway and signing with jockey Flavien Prat and trainer John Sadler, a $1-million Single…

Mike Willman/Santa Anita Press Releae ARCADIA, Calif. - With an Eclipse Award for top 3-year-old male potentially at stake on opening day, Monday, Dec. 26, nominations for Santa Anita's prestigious Grade I, $300000 Runhappy Malibu Stakes and five other graded offerings closed Monday with a total of 104 horses nominated for the Malibu, Grade I La…

With the Road to the 2022 Kentucky Derby paused until Jan. 22, fillies take the spotlight Saturday. Under the Stars (8-5) leads a field of six lined up for the Grade 2, $200000 Santa Ynez Stakes. Post time from Santa Anita is 7:06 p.m. EST, with TVG showing the seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies. The Santa Ynez pays out Road to the 2022…

Mike Willman/Santa Anita Press Box ARCADIA, Calif.-Santa Anita Park's Classic Race Meeting, which opens on Monday, Dec. 26, will offer horsemen the largest purse structure in Santa Anita's storied 88-year history with significant increases in both allowance and stakes race monies. Additionally, Santa Anita will again offer fans and horsemen the…

Flightline wins his third straight race in style in Sunday's Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita. Benoit photo, courtesy of Santa Anita Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Epicenter entered the Kentucky Derby picture with a handy win Sunday at Fair Grounds while a sparkling Opening Day program at Santa Anita featured a dazzling performance by budding superstar…

LAS VEGAS - In the late 1970s, cocky young prognosticator Danny Sheridan boasted of his magnificent acumen picking football winners to Mort Olshan, who brainstormed a test. Give me the team that won and whether it had covered the spread, Olshan said, of two games that were played last weekend. Sheridan, who claimed to have a photographic memory,…

Beauty Generation, shown during morning track work Thursday, is one of many headliners on the Champions Day program Sunday at Hong Kong's Sha Tin Racecourse. Photo courtesy of Hong Kong Jockey Club April 24 (UPI) -- With much of the world's horse racing still out of action because of the coronavirus, Hong Kong steps up this weekend with a trio of…

It showed up like clockwork last week in my email. Remember email? About 240 of us voters for the Eclipse Awards received our annual packets of digital information, complete with the usual advice to tamp an eagerness we may have to cast an early ballot. "It is strongly encouraged," the instructions said, "that you consider waiting to vote until…