SUPER SATURDAY AT SANTA ANITA ACCELERATE A CERTAIN FAVORITE FOR THE CLASSIC

We were on site for the so called ‘Super Saturday’’ at Santa Anita where the temperature was 83 degrees and the going on dirt and the turf was fast. These four Stakes races are in fact Breeders Cup prep races with the winners getting an automatic berth into the extravaganza next month at Churchill Downs.

Game Winner

First up was the American Pharoah Stakes for juvenile colts. Santa Anita has a bad habit of changing the names of races as often as Madonna changes her boyfriends, and this race was formerly known as the Norfolk Stakes and more recently the Front Runner Stakes for a few years. It is fitting that the race was won smartly by a Bob Baffert-trained horse called Game Winner who won the slowly run race over four opponents as the odds on favorite. The son of Candy Ride was also the winner of the Del Mar Futurity and is now unbeaten in three starts. He gamely fought off the opposition and won easily by 4½ lengths leaving Baffert with plenty of positive thoughts about the horse going into next month’s Breeders Cup Juvenile. Joel Rosario was the winning rider.

Bellafina

Next up was the Chandelier Stakes for the Juvenile Fillies and Indian racing fans will be pleased to see Kaleem Shah in the spotlight again with his winning youngster Bellafina who went off as the 4/5 favorite in another small field.

Vasilika

She is trained by Simon Callaghan, an up and coming trainer who is the son of English conditioner Nevil Callaghan. It was a sparkling 6½ length win by the daughter of Quality Road who now has three wins from four starts, Next on the card was the Rodeo Drive Stakes which is an automatic berth to the Filly and Mare Turf race in Kentucky. I don’t think that the winner will be strong enough to take on the Europeans or even the ex-Europeans, but for a former claiming horse Vasilika that could be a lively each way bet in November. Here she was sent off as the 6-5 favorite over a relatively strong field, and duly obliged after stalking the leaders and taking over in the final few yards. Trained by the shrewd Jerry Hollendorfer, Vasilika has now won eight of her last nine starts after being claimed for $40,000. She is a daughter of the little known stallion Skipshot and I will watch her future closely.

Bellafina being led in by Kaleem Shah

Highlight of the day was the Awesome Again Stakes which used to be known as the Goodwood Stakes. The heavy favorite was Accelerate at 1-5 and although he seems to lack superstar status, he will get it if he takes the Breeders Cup Classic.

Accelerate

He beat the returning star West Coast, who was having his first race since finishing second in the Dubai World Cup in March. West Coast ran with a lot of vigor going to the front on the back stretch, but eventually was run down by Accelerate who won going away by 2¼ lengths to record his fourth Grade One victory this year. Trained by John Sadler and ridden by Joel Rosario, Accelerate does not have a style that excites the crowd, but all he does is win, and I think he will be the favorite in the Classic in November probably at a generous price of about 5-2. He is a son of Looking at Lucky and his earnings now stand at $2.69 million.

On a side note, Victor Espinoza used to be the regular rider of Accelerate but he has been sidelined by a serious injury at Del Mar a few months ago. He is undergoing daily and rigorous therapy and there is no date set for his return to the saddle.