Saturday’s Best Bet: Missed the Cut stacks up in San Marcos
Saturday’s eighth race at Santa Anita is the Grade 3 San Marcos Stakes for 4-year-olds and up traveling 1 1/4 miles on the turf course. The scheduled post time is 7 p.m. EST.
Click here for Santa Anita entries and results.
No. 1 Missed the Cut (2-1) under Joel Rosario should save all the ground behind the speed. He could not match strides with red-hot closer Easter in a runner-up finish in the San Gabriel (G2) at 1 1/8 miles Dec. 26. He romped on dirt in the Tokyo City at 1 1/2 miles on dirt last fall, and he won multiple starts at 1 1/4 miles when he raced overseas.
No. 3 Balladeer (3-1) got clear early and stole the local John Henry at 1 1/4 miles last fall. He set the pace and weakened in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, and he made the lead and weakened in the Hollywood Turf Cup (G2) at 1 1/2 miles last time. He might be dangerous at this trip if he slows things down on the front end.
No. 5 Planetario (5-2) won two races at this distance in Brazil in 2021. Since arriving in this country, he won the San Juan Capistrano (G3) at 1 3/4 miles and exits a neck victory in the Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles. He is just getting warmed up at this distance and might run out of ground in a race without much pace to chase.
Get Jarrod’s Santa Anita analysis.
Wagers
No. 1 to win
Trifecta 1-3/1-3-5/1-3-5
Recent Best Bet winners
Sunday – Point Dume ($5.60), exacta ($11.40)
Thursday – Sonofaship ($10.60), exacta ($33.60), trifecta ($75.20)
Friday – Determined Driver ($6.20), exacta ($17.40)