California Diamond, Elwood J head field of nine in Echo Eddie

California Diamond and Elwood J head a competitive field of nine 3-year-olds in Saturday’s $200,000 Echo Eddie Stakes going 6 ½ furlongs on the main track at Santa Anita. The Echo Eddie is part of the lucrative Golden State Series of stakes races for horses bred or sired in California.

California Diamond: The most experienced in the Echo Eddie field andnever worse than second in 10 lifetime outings, California Diamond will attempt his fourth stakes victory on Saturday. Favored at post time in six of his races, the Peter Miller trained colt by Harbor the Gold will cut back in distance after running a close second, by a combined three lengths, in his last three races when routing.

Owned by Rockingham Ranch, the Triple Crown nominated California Diamond made bettors take notice when he ran second to the formerly Kentucky Derby bound Mastery (trained by Bob Baffert) by 1 ¼ lengths in The Grade III Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar in November.

California Diamond is 10-5-5-0 overall with earnings of $465,280.

Elwood J: Elwood J, a 3-year-old Vronsky gelding out of the In Excess mare Preservingthepeace, will switch back to dirt after a pair of third place finishes in downhill turf sprints, including the Feb. 20 Baffle Stakes over a “good” turf.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer and owned by Joe Turner, Elwood J will once again be ridden by current leader in the jockey standings, Flavien Prat. Though third in his last two outings over the grass, Elwood J put in the highest Beyer Speed Figures of any Echo Eddie contender, even in defeat, earning a 92 for a first condition allowance on March 24 and a solid 85 rating in the Baffle.

Elwood J is 7-2-0-3 overall with $104,796 in lifetime earnings.

The field, including jockeys and weights, for the Echo Eddie Stakes

Race 10 – Approximate post time of 4:35 p.m.

1. Will Tell, Kent Desormeaux, 120

2. B Squared, Corey Nakatani, 120

3. Tribal Storm, Rafael Bejarano, 122

4. Mr. Hinx, Tyler Baze, 122

5. Ninety Nine Proof, Iggy Puglisi, 122

6. Green With Eddie, Mario Gutierrez, 124

7. Dr. Troutman, Martin Pedroza, 120

8. California Diamond, Norberto Arroyo, Jr., 124

9. Elwood J, Flavien Prat, 122