Can Sheer Talent Get Two Turns in Logan?

Dan Hendricks would like to win Saturday’s Eddie Logan Stakes at one mile on turf for two reasons: the winner’s share of the $75,000 purse would be nice, and so would winning the race named for Santa Anita icon Eddie Logan, a fixture at The Great Race Place since it opened on Christmas Day, 1934, until his death at the age of 98 on Jan. 31, 2009.

“This is the first time going two turns,” Hendricks said of Sheer Talent, a bay ridgling with four races on his brief resume, none further than seven furlongs. “He ran seven-eighths in the (Grade III) Hollywood Prevue and was a real good fourth.

“He just leveled off at the end. Garrett (Gomez) thought he would run on further, so we’re trying the mile.”

Logan, who operated a shoe shine stand outside the racing office since the track’s opening until shortly before his death, has an infinite number of fans.

“He was a fixture,” Hendricks said. “You’d see him every time you came in and you made sure you went by and said hello. It was almost like a good luck thing to say hi every day. He was a good guy who enjoyed people.”

The field for the Eddie Logan: Sheer Talent, Gomez, 8-1; Devil in Disguise, Mario Gutierrez, 20-1; Smart Ellis, Victor Espinoza, 8-1; Champions Gate, Joel Rosario, 9-2; Stoney Fleece, Corey Nakatani, 5-2; Chips All In, Alonso Quinonez, 9-2; Fear the Beard, Hector Berrios, 30-1; Daddy Nose Best, Julien Leparoux, 9-5; and The Black, Brice Blanc, 30-1.