Santa Anita news: Roadster 'went nice' in final workout
Santa Anita Handicap (G1) favorite McKinzie will have his final major workout Monday for the track’s marquee event for older horses. The Grade 1 fixture offers $600,000 in purse money and will be decided at a mile and a quarter.
“McKinzie is doing extremely well,” said Bob Baffert, who also will breeze champion 2-year-old champion Game Winner on Monday for Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby (G1), which offers 100 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the winner, 40 to the runner-up, 20 to the third-place finisher and 10 to the fourth.
Baffert has won the Santa Anita Handicap five times, second only to Charlie Whittingham, who holds the record with nine.
Another Santa Anita Derby contender trained by Baffert, Roadster, worked six furlongs Sunday morning in a bullet 1:12.60, and “went nice.” It was the fastest of 19 drills at the distance.
In addition to the 1 ¼-mile Big ‘Cap and the 1 1/8-mile Santa Anita Derby, Santa Anita will next Saturday showcase the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) among its seven stakes races.
LONGEST PHOTO HAS HAPPY ENDING FOR FUENTES
Hollywood has “The Longest Yard.” Now Santa Anita has “The Longest Photo.”
After an interminable amount of time -- perhaps more than five minutes as fans waited with anticipation -- results of a photo finish from Saturday’s Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile on turf were posted, showing 9-1 outsider Ohio the winner by the narrowest of noses over 4-5 favorite Catapult.
While it was the toughest of beats for the connections of Catapult, it was a feel-good story for those of Ohio, trainer Michael McCarthy and owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Bruce Treitman, but most of all 21-year-old jockey Ruben Fuentes, who was riding in his first Grade 1 race.
“My initial reaction was we got beat,” was the assessment Sunday morning from McCarthy, who gained international acclaim for his masterful preparation of City of Light in winning the $12 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26.
“I was very pleased that Ohio showed up and ran like that. But after about two or three minutes of waiting for the photo, I felt they were taking an awfully long time to look at it -- maybe it could be a dead-heat.
“After about five minutes, I thought, ‘This is nice. I don’t think they’ll make anybody a loser here,’ and then when they eventually flashed his number, I was in total shock. I couldn’t believe it. Both horses ran too good to lose.
“I’m very pleased for Ruben. He’s a nice young man, comes out here and tries his best every day, is very polite and seems dedicated to his craft, so it’s good to be able to team up with someone like him.”
Ditto for Fuentes’ agent, 29-year-old Tijuana native Saul Marquez, who has been booking mounts for 12 years, the last two for the 21-year-old Fuentes, who hails from El Paso.
“He’s the hardest worker,” Marquez said. “He never says no, always has a smile on his face and I think this is the start of a long and successful career. It runs in the family, because Ruben’s father, Miguel, also rides. He’s known as the Mike Smith of Mexico City.
“Waiting for that photo yesterday was very nerve wracking, but very rewarding.”
FINISH LINES: There were 233 recorded workouts at Santa Anita Sunday, 58 on the training track . . . Santa Anita will be dark for live racing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and reopen for live action Thursday, April 4, at 1 p.m. PT.