Santa Anita Park

After a flurry of activity this past week which appeared to breathe life into the idea of Pleasanton racetrack remaining open for training and stabling, potentially even for a race-meet this summer, the facility looks set to end its current tenure as a state licensed auxiliary training and stabling center midnight Tuesday. "Please be aware that as of March 25 at midnight, Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton will no longer be an approved auxiliary training facility of Santa Anita Park. The agreement between the Southern Stabling and Vanning Committee (TOC...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of Lady Claypoole in the Santa Ana Stakes at Santa Anita earlier in March.   Santa Ana Stakes For Lady Claypoole Abbondanza Racing and Omar Aldabbagh's Lady Claypoole (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) earned her first stakes win in the GIII Santa Ana Stakes at Santa Anita on Mar. 15 (video). Trained by Richard Baltas, the 5-year-old mare was bred by Aston House Stud. The eighth...

Led by leading scorer Drayden Van Dyke, a team of Santa Anita jockeys defeated the Holy Angels Middle School basketball team Thursday night to break a lengthy losing streak in the 55th annual charity game. With coach Luis Jauregui at the helm and former jockey Darrell Haire serving as assistant, the jockeys came out on top with a score of 28-22. The team consisted of Van Dyke, Kent Desormeaux, Edwin Maldonado, Armando Ayuso, Abel Lezcano, Ricky Gonzalez, Diego Herrara, Geovanni Franco, Kevin Orozco and Sofia Barandela. Prior to the game,...

GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up MGISP Vodka With a Twist (Thousand Words) is reportedly on track to make her 2025 debut in the GII Fasig-Tipton Santa Anita Oaks after a good drill Monday morning at Santa Anita. Most recently clocked in a five furlong move in :59.80 (4/71), the multiple Grade I-placed filly has been on the sidelines since running third behind GISW Tenma (Nyquist) and SW & GSP Look Forward (Bolt d'Oro) in the GII Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos Dec. 7. "I was very happy with the...

That the figures recently released by the Jockey Club from its Equine Injury Database showed another significant drop in the number of fatalities was good news, but hardly surprising news. The numbers seem to get better every year. But dig deeper into the data presented by the Jockey Club and there is a number that is quite surprising and encouraging. In 2024, dirt tracks were almost as safe as synthetic tracks. There were 1.18 fatalities per 1,000 starts on the dirt, which came very close to the number in the...

10th-Santa Anita, $68,500, Msw, 3-15, 3yo, f, 6fT, 1:10.39, gd, 1/2 length. MISLEADING (f, 3, Not This Time--Heart of Paradise {GSP}, by More Than Ready) executed a perfectly-timed rush to graduate in-style. A 10-1 shot here, the Keeneland September grad was in no hurry when it came to exiting the gate. Biding her time at the back of the field, the filly seemed out of it by the far turn, but the 3-year-old was gearing up for a late push. Misleading tipped towards the center of the course at the...

Tradition since 1995, Santa Anita Park's Derby Day 5K Run & Walk is set for Saturday, Apr. 5 for the 30th running of the event, the track announced Saturday afternoon. The race will kick off at 8 a.m. with participants encouraged to arrive early between 6:30 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. and horsemen as well as locals are reminded that Baldwin Avenue will be closed from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. to all but foot track. The closing extends between the 210 Freeway and Huntington Drive. The race begins from South...

3rd-Santa Anita, $65,500, Msw, 3-14, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:43.94, ft, 1 1/4 lengths. VOLDEMORT (c, 3, Good Magic--Beauty Buzz, by Bernardini) couldn't reel in 'TDN Rising Star' Tiz Secure (Maximum Security) in their mutual unveiling Feb. 22, but the 8-5 favorite more than got the job done here with a workman-like effort on the front end. Quickly to the front to control the pace, he came under pressure after the half in :45.78 and tried to give the field the slip entering the second bend. On a clear lead, but...

In 1976, 23-year-old Trevor Denman took a vacation from his race calling gigs at three tracks in Natal, South Africa, to venture to the United States to see what racing in a different part of the world was like. Because it was January, he left in the middle of a long, hot summer at home, packing only lightweight clothing and traveling in a dapper Palm Beach suit. His wardrobe choices left him ill-prepared for the first several stops on his cross-country tour of America, which happened to be the winter...

Trainer Tom Morley reports that 'TDN Rising Star' SW & GISP Donegal Momentum (Uncle Mo) has exited his Mar. 6 seasonal bow at Fair Grounds in good form and that the connections have started mapping out a potential path through his 2025 campaign. Listing off plans which include a start in Keeneland's GI Maker's Mark Mile, the GIII Poker Stakes at the Spa, and the GI Fourstardave Stakes over the summer, Morely says it is not out of the wheelhouse that his charge might be running in a seven-furlong graded...

Kazushi Kimura is set to make his return and will begin riding horses during morning training toward the end of next week, Santa Anita revealed via press release Sunday afternoon. Sidelined for more than two months after suffering a lower leg injury in a starting gate incident back in mid-January, his agent Brian Beach said Kimura will begin getting on horses for morning works next week and will return for the new condition book that runs through the end of the Classic Meet Apr. 6. "He's a really hard worker...

2nd-GP, $94K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:25 p.m. ET. Carrying the same colors as her successful dam, DOUBLE JEOPARDY (Uncle Mo) is set for her unveiling for Bass Stables and Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. The first-time starter is out of Avenge (War Front), the winner of back-to-back editions of the GI Rodeo Drive Stakes, who counts as a full-sister recent GII Buena Vista Stakes heroine Liguria. Double Jeopardy's older half-sister Defiance (Curlin) broke her maiden at first asking at Santa Anita Jan. 26 for Ramona Bass. Also on...