Best Bet: Masteroffoxhounds leads the pack in San Marcos
Sunday’s sixth race at Santa Anita Park 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 6:06 p.m. EST.
Click here for Santa Anita Park entries and results.
No. 2 Masteroffoxhounds (4-1) was a better-than-appears show finisher as the beaten favorite in the San Gabriel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Dec. 26. As I wrote in my stakes recap for that race, a strong second interior fraction set the table for the patient runners. Michael McCarthy’s horse won this event in 2021 and captured the John Henry Turf Championship (G2) under Sunday’s pilot Umberto Rispoli last fall. He likes this course and distance and should make his presence felt throughout.
No. 4 Prince Abama (5-1) hit the board in a back-to-back flat-mile stakes last October, and he pressed the pace and scored in the Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles on Nov. 25. Last time, he did not have the smoothest journey and raced evenly in the San Gabriel. Flavien Prat stays put, and he teamed up with Phil D’Amato to win Saturday’s Thunder Road Stakes (G3).
No. 8 Say the Word (4-1) makes his first start since landing the show in this event last January. Phil D’Amato’s gelding won the Northern Dancer in 2020 and the Elkhorn and Hollywood Turf Cup in 2021, and all those races were contested at 1 1/2 miles. He hit the board in all three local starts and has stuck twice at this distance, and he reconnects with his winning pilot Kent Desormeaux.
No. 7 Dicey Mo Chara (3-1) got the right setup as my top choice in the San Gabriel. He is usually thereabouts and Juan Hernandez rode him with confidence last time.
Get Jarrod's Santa Anita analysis.
Wagers
No. 2 to win
Exacta box 2-4
Trifecta 2-4/2-4-7-8/2-4-7-8
Recent Best Bet winners
Jan. 26 – Minnesota Ready/Zippin Gigi/Twirling Roses trifecta ($167.80)
Jan. 27 – Irish Prophet/Admiralty Place/Ridley's Major trifecta ($257)
Jan. 28 – Newgrange ($10.40), exacta ($30)
Last Sunday – Lane Way ($6), exacta ($11.80)
Tuesday – Beren/Smooth B exacta ($3.60), trifecta ($11.20)
Thursday – Sunday Breeze/Good Old Charlie exacta ($24.20)
Friday – Macadamia/Buzz of New York exacta ($21)