Santa Anita: Straight No Chaser cruises in Sprint Championship

Straight No Chaser and Hall of Fame jockey John Velázquez rolled to a dominant, front-running victory Sunday in the six-furlong, Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.

Trained by Dan Blacker, Straight No Chaser (3-2) was quickest out of the gate and proceeded to set fractions of 21.83 and 44.28 seconds for the opening half-mile. Once he reached the stretch, Straight No Chaser burst away from the field and crossed the wire with a time of 1:08.54 to win by 6 1/4 lengths.

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Roll On Big Joe (21-1) with Umberto Rispoli up finished a distant second, and See Through It (13-1) ridden by Tiago Pereira rounded out the trifecta.

“He was ready from the start,” Velázquez said. “If he breaks good and (gets) loose reins, that’s what he likes. He relaxes until somebody gets next to him. ... I just had to put my hands down and let him do what he needs to do.”

“They were running,” Blacker said. “He broke really quick today, and when I saw him going into the turn, how easy he was going, and we were in the right spot, I felt pretty confident.”

Fort Bragg (3-2), who was coming off a 10-month layoff, went off with $414 more in the win pool than Straight No Chaser to be the slight favorite. He made a three-wide bid on the turn under Juan Hernández but flattened out in the stretch to finish fourth.

Owned by My Racehorse, Straight No Chaser improved to 9: 5-0-1 with $376,300 in earnings. In his only previous start this year in May, the 4-year-old Speightster horse stumbled at the break in the Runhappy (G3) going six furlongs at Aqueduct and finished fourth. His only previous stakes win came in last year’s Maryland Sprint (G3) at Pimlico on the Preakness undercard.

Straight No Chaser paid $5.00, $3.60 and $3.00. Roll On Big Joe, trained by Robert Hess Jr., returned $10.80 and $6.20. See Through It, trained by Genaro Vallejo, paid $5.00.