Santa Anita Park statistics, horse racing notes

SANTA ANITA LEADERS

Through Thursday

JOCKEYS / WINS

Rafael Bejarano / 72

Santiago Gonzalez / 47

Flavien Prat / 46

Edwin Maldonado / 43

Tyler Baze / 32

Joe Talamo / 32

TRAINERS / WINS

Philip D’Amato / 37

Doug O’Neill / 33

Jerry Hollendorfer / 24

Bob Baffert / 22

Richard Baltas / 21

STAKES SCHEDULE

SANTA ANITA

Saturday

• $1 million Grade I Santa Anita Derby, 3-year-olds, 1 1/8 miles

• $400,000 Grade I Santa Anita Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1 1/16 miles

• $150,000 Grade III Providencia Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 1 1/8 miles (turf)

Sunday

• $100,000 Grade III San Juan Capistrano Stakes, 4-year-olds and up, 1 3/4 miles (turf)

• $100,000 Grade III Las Cienegas Stakes, 4-year-olds and up, fillies and mares, 6 1/2 furlongs (turf)

DOWN THE STRETCH

• There are two other major Kentucky Derby preps Saturday in addition to the Santa Anita Derby – the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, which both offer $1 million purses. Shagaf, trained by Chad Brown, is the 2-1 moing-line favorite in the Wood and will be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr. Zulu is the 5-2 favorite in the Blue Grass. The Beardini colt is trained by Todd Pletcher and will be ridden by Javier Castellano.

• Ogden Mills (Diy) Phipps, a prominent thoroughbred owner and breeder, died Wednesday night in New York at 75 after a lengthy illness. Phipps, one of the leading voices in the industry for decades, owned 2013 Kentucky Derby wier Orb in partnership with his cousin. Phipps’ son, Ogden Phipps II, has indicated his family’s racing operation will remain intact.

• Even though both Songbird and Danzing Candy have gone virtually gate to wire in all their victories, their jockey, Mike Smith, has no doubt both can rate off the pace if the need arises. “We do it in the moings quite a bit,” he said. “Most of the time when they do work with the company it’s usually starting out about four to five to six to seven lengths behind their company, which we’ve done with both, and it’s pretty much the same outcome. It’s not that they need the lead.”

– Art Wilson

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