ARCADIA, Calif. – Sunday’s opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting drew an announced ontrack crowd of 41,962, the highest since 46,514 attended the first day of the 2016-17 meeting.
Sunday’s figure was slightly higher than the 2024 opening day crowd of 41,562 held on a Thursday. Opening day is typically Dec. 26. Sunday was supposed to be the third day of the current meeting, but the Friday and Saturday programs were canceled over the weekend because of substantial rain last week.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Nysos show is likely to go international in early 2026, and he may take a talented friend with him.
After a win in the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert said Nysos is on schedule for a start in the $20 million Saudi Cup at 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 14 in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Cup also is a possibility for Nevada Beach, the three-time stakes winner who challenged Nysos through the stretch of the Pincay before losing by a head.
“That was a good prep for both and for something bigger,” Baffert said.
Though Mailata was the 5-2 morning-line favorite in Tuesday’s $75,000 Future Stars Stakes at Parx Racing, his connections also entered him in Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.
Trainer Butch Reid said a decision on where Mailata would run would likely be made sometime Monday, but he sounded as though he preferred the Jerome.
“I like the spot, outside post in a five-horse field going a mile. Seems perfect for me,” Reid said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Doc Sullivan won his third stakes race of the year and stated a case to be New York-bred champion older dirt male with his victory in the Alex M. Robb Stakes last Friday at Aqueduct.
But that may not have been the most exciting thing to happen for trainer John Ortiz and owner TriStar Farm last week.
A Florida state representative has introduced a bill that would allow Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach to cease live racing in 2030 while continuing to operate its casino.
Rep. Adam Anderson, a real-estate developer who spearheaded a similar legislative effort earlier this year that ultimately failed, filed the bill Tuesday, giving notice to the state’s racing industry that a decoupling battle will once again be staged in the state legislature in 2026.
In June, apprentice Yedsit Hazlewood’s burgeoning career was put on hold when he and a fellow jockey were involved in a late-night car accident driving back from New York. The 17-year-old rider underwent surgery on his wrist and missed two months. It was a profound wake-up call.
“The accident helped me to be able to understand and be more mature about this,” Hazlewood said through a translator. “To get an opportunity like this, you will never get it again and you don’t want to waste it.”
Two days later than scheduled, Santa Anita begins its winter-spring meeting on Sunday with an 11-race program that includes 29 stakes winners.
The number of stakes winners could grow by late Sunday afternoon, considering there are six stakes spread across the program, which starts at 11 a.m. Pacific.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The high-class 2-year-old Mr. A. P., runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, is already off the Kentucky Derby trail.
“He had a little setback,” trainer Vladimir Cerin said Saturday at Santa Anita. “I’m hoping he’ll be ready at the end of the March, which makes everything difficult.”
The setback makes it virtually impossible for Mr. A.P. to make the Kentucky Derby, which is unfortunate because Mr. A. P. stamped himself one of the country’s leading 2-year-olds by finishing second to undefeated Ted Noffey in the BC Juvenile.
Rudy Campas, a fixture among California jockeys for 30 years, died on Wednesday after an illness, his friends said.
Campas, who resided in Rubidoux, Calif., near Riverside, was 85.
Born in Vernon, Texas, Campas had a varied career, and was well known for his success at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. He won 144 races at the bullring track and was among the 10 all-time leading riders at the venue when it closed in 2013.
Santa Anita postponed entries for the Dec. 26 opening-day program from Friday to Sunday to better assess an unsettled forecast in Southern California in coming days.
Widespread rain is forecast from Tuesday to Thursday next week. In a text message released midday Friday, the track’s racing office said entries were delayed “to allow for additional time to evaluate the weather forecast.”
Santa Anita was scheduled to take entries on Friday for the Dec. 26 program, which includes six graded stakes and is typically the track’s best attended program of the year.
