Holiday Weekend Provides Great Racing at Santa Anita

The upcoming holiday weekend features three days of top-class racing at Santa Anita Park. The locale known as “The Great Race Place” will host a pair of graded stakes races for older horses, followed by a special Monday card on Martin Luther King Day.

Saturday's slate is headlined by the Grade 2 Strub, a perennial prep race for the Grade I Santa Anita Handicap. The race has been won by legends Round Table, Spectacular Bid, and Alysheba, as well as more contemporary stars like Silver Charm and Medaglia d'Oro. However, this year's main Strub subplot consists of several talented contenders with major question marks.

Hear the Ghost may be favored, but he hung a bit behind stablemate Blueskiesnrainbows last out at Betfair Hollywood Park in his first start off a long layoff. Meanwhile, Shakin It Up and Zeewat ran 1-3 in the Malibu Stakes earlier this meet, but that was a one-turn sprint. And what do we make of Govenor Charlie, who will make his first start since a disappointing run in the Preakness behind Oxbow where he took some money at 9-1?

Sunday's feature is the Grade 2 La Cañada for fillies and mares. The two headliners in that race figure to be Broken Sword and Fiftyshadesofhay, who ran 1-2 in the Bayakoa last month in Inglewood. Broken Sword won that race by more than four lengths, but the daughter of Broken Vow may not be as comfortable on conventional dirt.

Fiftyshadesofhay, on the other hand, has won three graded stakes races on dirt, with two second-place finishes in similar company as well. The Bob Baffert trainee has banked nearly $800,000 in 13 career starts, and she'll get three pounds from Broken Sword Sunday afternoon.

Like several other tracks around the country, Santa Anita will run a Monday program to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. The festivities will also include $1 hot dogs and drinks, and the day's first post time is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Pacific time.