Santa Anita news: 'So far, so good' after Game Winner works
Two members of Bob Baffert’s Triple Crown trifecta, Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Roadster and champion Game Winner, both worked Saturday toward Kentucky Derby 2019.
Roadster breezed six furlongs from the gate in 1:13.60, while Game Winner went five furlongs in 1:00.80. Jockey Martin Garcia was aboard for both drills.
“I’m really happy with them,” Baffert said. “There’s always a lot of anxiety this time of year getting ready for the Derby, but so far, so good.”
Baffert is seeking his sixth triumph in the Run for the Roses. In addition to Roadster and Game Winner, he also has Improbable poised to run in the first jewel of the Triple Crown, which he captured twice in the last four years, with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify last year.
Toss in favored Omaha Beach, trained by Richard Mandella, and this year’s Top 4 Kentucky Derby choices could all come from Santa Anita, which was the home of four of the last seven winners: Nyquist, 2012; American Pharoah, 2015; I’ll Have Another, 2016; and Justify, 2018.
GIFT BOX IN FLUID BREEZE FOR GOLD CUP
Santa Anita Handicap (G1) winner Gift Box worked four furlongs early Saturday for John Sadler under assistant trainer Juan Leyva in 49.60 for the Gold Cup at Santa Anita (G1) on Memorial Day, May 27.
“It was a gorgeous work this morning -- really smooth,” Sadler said. “We’re a ways out from the Gold Cup but he looks perfect. It was about a 10 work, not because of the time, but just how he did it: very fluid, nice and relaxed. We were all smiles afterwards.”
As for the 3-year-old Nolo Contesto, who had been a Triple Crown hopeful early on, Sadler said, “we’re looking at everything; we haven’t made a plan yet, so it’s to be determined. He could go in the Affirmed Stakes here on June 16, he could go in the Pat Day Mile on May 4.
“He could also sit around and see how the Derby plays out, so we have several options...We’ll breeze him next week, then start focusing on something.”
LA FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH IN SANTA MARGARITA?
La Force, who has faced the “nuts” in five of her last six races, all of them Grade 1 events, moves down a peg Saturday in the Santa Margarita Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares at a mile and an eighth on the main track.
One of the infrequent German-bred horses to campaign in California, La Force worked five furlongs this morning in 1:01.60.
“She seems happy and well,” trainer Paddy Gallagher said. “She needs to be.”
Run as a Grade 1 race until this year, the Santa Margarita still smacks of that status in 2019, with the likes of Just a Smidge, Lemoona, Paradise Woods, Starr of Quality and Withholding Info likely to run this time around.
Owned by Roberta and Ward Williford, along with California Horse Racing Board Chairman Chuck Winner, La Force is coming out of four straight Grade 1 races: the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the Zenyatta, the Clement L. Hirsch and the Beholder Mile, having finished second in the latter two events.
A 5-year-old daughter of Power, she was fourth in the Santa Margarita in March 2017 and has earned $390,800 thanks to a 2-7-4 record from 23 starts, 20 of them in the U.S.