3/11-12 (SA): SA H., Kilroe, Tr. Bend (G1's), Felipe (G2); Santa Ana (G2)
 

5th (2:30) San Felipe S. (G2)

1 1/16 Miles | Open | 3 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $400,000

1 Term of Art Baze T C 122 L
2 Vending Machine Arroyo N Jr 120 L
3 Ann Arbor Eddie Gutierrez Mario 120 L
4 Mastery Smith M E 124 L
5 Gormley Espinoza V 122 L
6 Iliad Prat F 120 L
7 Bluegrass Envy Radosevich J 120 L



8th (4:00) Triple Bend S. (G1)

7 Furlongs | Open | 4 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $400,000

1 Denman's Call Baze T C 120 L
2 Point Piper Gutierrez Mario 122 L
3 Kobe's Back Castellano J J 122 L
4 Silent Bird Prat F 120 L
5 Masochistic Smith M E 122 L
6 Nowalking Maldonado E 120 L
7 Conquest Cobra Bejarano R 120 L



9th (4:30) Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. (G1)

1 Mile (Turf) | Open | 4 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $400,000

1 Bal a Bali (BRZ) Castellano J J 120 L
2 Flamboyant (FR) Blanc B 120 L
3 Bolo Smith M E 122 L
4 Dortmund Espinoza V 120 Blk-Off L
5 Ring Weekend Bejarano R 122 L
6 Conquest Enforcer Prat F 122 L
7 What a View Baze T C 122 L



10th (5:00) Santa Anita H. (G1)

1 1/4 Miles | Open | 4 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $750,000

1 Midnight Storm Bejarano R 122 L
2 Gangster Gutierrez Mario 115 L
3 Shaman Ghost Castellano J J 122 L
4 Isotherm Prat F 119 L
5 Hard Aces Espinoza V 119 L
6 Follow Me Crev Desormeaux K J 116 L
7 Twentytwentyvision Smith M E 116 L
8 Hi Happy (ARG) Domingos A 116 FTL
9 Imperative Gallardo A A 119 L



11th (5:20) China Doll S.

1 Mile (Turf) | Fillies | 3 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $75,000

Post # Horse Jockey Weight Claim Price Equip. Med.
1 Miss Sugars (GB) Baze T C 124 L
2 Go On Mary Castellano J J 120 L
3 Bernina Star Gonzalez S 120 L
4 How About Zero Gutierrez Mario 120 L
5 Sircat Sally Smith M E 124 L
6 Grand Prix Theriot H J II 120 L
7 Simmy's Temple (GB) Ocampo I 124 L
8 La Force (GER) Bejarano R 120 Blk-On L
9 Madam Dancealot (IRE) Elliott S 120 L
10 Beau Recall (IRE) Talamo J 120 L
11 Miss Sunset Maldonado E 120 L
12 Lady Beware (IRE) Blanc B 120 L
AE Siberian Iris (IRE) Solis A 120 L
AE Spy Ring (IRE) Espinoza V 120 FTL

Is Dortmund gonna take real money in a race they're clearly using as a turf-to-dirt prep, vs real turf horses?

Also, the Big Cap sucks balls.

I thought it was a "We don't know what the hell to do with this big, oafish, need the lead cripple so...turf!"

Man that is harsh

RHT is seeking therapy as we speak

Hell, probably that too. Is the horse gonna be 4-1 or less though?

Good question. I would think so. You're probably supposed to make him a slight ML favorite over Bolo. Here's what I'd make it....

1 Bal a Bali (BRZ) 8
2 Flamboyant (FR) 12
3 Bolo 3
4 Dortmund 5/2
5 Ring Weekend 6
6 Conquest Enforcer 7/2
7 What a View 9/2

Gormley seems a nice sort,would expect a good race out of him.
Ann Arbor Eddie could be a sleeper,he caught a surface he didn't handle in his last..........plus,he's really improved when getting a distance of ground.
And somebody please explain to me why the cross country ship to run Bluegrass Envy in this spot...........easily wins the award for the stupidest move of 2017.

Silent Bird is a machine.......looks the one in the TB.
Can Kobe's Back ever get the gate right ?

Bolo & What a View sure are fond of SA.
Bolo got a perfect trip in his last,he can be had as the chalk.
Bejarano hasn't ridden well the entire meet(perhaps due to injury),he did Ring Weekend no favors in the Arcadia.
Dortmund loses the hood,so you would expect him to sit........will he grass ?
Ring Weekend on top.
Dortmund/What a View maybe.

So.....
The Big Cap sure has a lot of grass friendly types in it.
Two ways to look at it:
Midnight Storm skates with no other early lick in the race.
Shaman Ghost just ran behind Arrogate & Gun Runner.
Pick your Poison.

We'll know when the real morning line comes out, which should be around noon on Saturday or so (sarcasm). Jon White, we love you but the last-minute morning lines are just not fan friendly.

Nick, I think CE and RW will be lower than this, but I'm hoping your line is close. Either way, everyone should get a square price on whomever you like here. Very nice race.

6/1 on RW? I think he is best horse in race

Have to think with some big workout reports Dortmund gets bet hard..this feels like a pretty accurate line to me. I'm willing to take conquest enforcer even with the quarter crack excuse last time...Interesting race from a pace perspective too

Not sure if it was the surface. Gutierrez gave one of the worst rides of all time last out. Sent the horse to the lead the first part, then allowed the colt to fall back on the backstretch, then inexplicably sent the horse back to the lead with an early bid right into the teeth of the pace. The horse fought hard through the lane and was DQ'd for his efforts when he got tired lugged out.

That said, despite the gut-busting effort, it was predictable that Reddam et al. would want to wheel right back without letting the horse recover. Expecting the horse to go backwards, especially with no whiff of a jockey change anywhere in sight.

If I had to guess, Bluegrass Envy might stay in CA post-race, as the owner has several horses there, most noticeably Imperative who runs in the Big Cap later on the card.

Dortmund only wore blinkers for his last 2, which appeared to be a desperation move on the part of Baffert when the horse's form was tailing off (or he just wanted to soften up California Chrome in the race before the BC).

I'll take a flyer on Hi Happy. Some improvement in his last start from his US debut and now adding Lasix first time. He won some important races in Argentina.

Jon White took the prudent approach and stayed on the fence with the line. I had Ring Weekend a little high given the expected race dynamics, but I think Dortmund is going to go off lower than 4-1.

:tro:

His Nacional on dirt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inAGVZwFt2s

Love Isotherm

Certainly worth a shot.

I'm talking myself on to Twentytwentyvision in the Big Cap.
I'll have to drop one off of my P-4..........probably the speedball.
This move backfires every single time........at least I'm used to it.:eek:

Dortmund is not going off at 4/1, more like 5/2.

I am on the Ring Weekend bandwagon as well with the race dynamics. Guess we should all save our money.

The real question is what Bolo shows up, the one that is overly aggressive and fights to settle or the one who when he does runs like a legit grade 1 horse. Even his last race he was acting goofy in the first turn.

He seems at his best first off the layoff. That last race was fairly unimpressive, he looked dead in the water on the far turn and then suddenly resurged. What A View was really smoking up front and Conquest Enforcer has wilted against his elders in 3 attempts, so the race looks like it fell apart late. That makes Ring Weekend, a dead closer, even more suspect (never mind the barn's 0-for-16 record at the meet).

That said, its basically the same field, but that just pulls me towards the new shooters. Flamboyant has had a nice tune up race and is training forwardly. He got some fast paces last year over this course and delivered. The cutback might be a little sharp but if the race collapses again with all this pace, it probably won't be an issue.

thats a real good point about the last race and ring weekend.

just not sure about flamboyant but hey he should be a nice price.

Flamboyant has some really sharp workouts of late but he is scratched. Would have been a great value play

SUN 7th (3:37) Santa Ana S. (G2)

1 1/8 Miles (Turf) | Fillies and Mares | 4 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $200,000

1 1 Pretty Girl (ARG) Espinoza V Lobo Paulo H 120 L 6-1
2 2 Do the Dance Baze T C Sherlock Gary 120 L 12-1
3 3 Goodyearforroses (IRE) Nakatani C S Baltas Richard 120 L 5-2
4 4 Sheeza Milky Way Theriot H J II Eurton Peter 120 L 6-1
5 5 Sweet Charity (FR) Prat F Sadler John W 120 L 4-1
6 6 Kenriya (FR) Bejarano R Baltas Richard 120 L 4-1
7 7 Evo Campo (IRE) Blanc B Gallagher Patrick 120 L 8-1
8 8 Responsibleforlove (IRE) Arroyo N Jr Drysdale Neil 120 FTL 6-1

$1 Exacta / $1 Trifecta / $2 Rolling Double $1 Rolling Pick Three (Races 7-8-9) / $1 Superfecta (.10 Min.)

I'm certainly not Splitting the Atom here.
In review:
The Calif. 3yo Spring Classics run certainly appears to be in jeopardy this year.
There's very little left standing....
Considering how poorly Gormley ran yesterday, I wouldn't be very high on American Anthem next week in Hot Springs.
Unless Royal Mo is a runner,it's slim pickings out West.
So Calif/New York look dry 3yo Colt wise.
Considering what happened in the Honeybee yesterday,you really have to wonder if the Don Alberto bunch are starting to eye the Santa Anita Derby.........Unique Bella would be eighty cents on the dollar{or less} in that race.......right ?

Masochistic couldn't of had it any easier........trending way down.

Real nice training job by Mandella........Bal a Bali looked like something inside the final Pole.
What a View ran lights out,nice type........tough beat.
Dortmund........back to the drawing board,I guess he got something out of the race......maybe ?
If Ring Weekend wasn't a gelding,they probably would of retired him after yesterday.

That's two Gr. 1's in his last four for Shaman Ghost.......good for him.

King Jerry has another nice 3yo Filly(how many is that now ?),Sircat Sally took a pretty solid version of the China Doll and did it with class.
She's undefeated and making every challenge look easy.

I think you might be to quick to jump to that conclusion. American Anthem improved so much between his first two starts it should be interesting to see how or if he continues to develop.

As for Gormley, who knows what happened with him? Mastery is so much better than him as of yesterday that you cant really gauge his performance in respect to American Anthem's ability also.

American Anthem, even before yesterday, had tons more upside than Gormley.

Im with Indian Charlie. AA could be special.

Considering that I'm colder than an eskimo with a pocketful of ice cubes at the windows right now,you guys might be right.........but I'm now spooked off of the Gormley dud.
He'll get pounded at the stations Saturday,and I think the 3yo strength(Colts) runs through the Southern region..............I'll try and beat him off the company line.
Strangely enough I've always liked Royal Mo a bit,think he has talent........I can see him making noise at some point in the Spring Classics.
It should be a good betting card @ OP Saturday,good luck to those wagering.

I think think there is a canyon between AA and Mastery....and I think that is not a uncommon feeling among many and well before this weekend.

It's always been evident there is a canyon between the two, but it's irrelevant. Mastery is out now and he was unlikely to make the derby in one piece anyways, as horses that are as brilliant as he is almost never do.

Now that he is out, it's much more wide open.

So now we are supposed to be excited for a horse who just another horse among the group.....no thanks, there has to be better bandwagons

and go back to mastery's wins, many here and other places were very dubious.

Bandwagon? I'm just saying he is one of the better looking options in a potential field of unappealing options.

And dubious or not, mastery was lengths better than anyone else has shown to date. Well, maybe not the first two finishers of the bcj, but one of them is retired and the other has serious issues.

I will be against AA in his next race, havnt seen the field but he seems like an average sort to me, definitely not a type who can win the derby, and likely not this weekend at 8/5.

If American Anthem starts in the Rebel, he will have reached the average number of starts of his 4 older siblings, the most durable of which made all of 5 starts (with a 18 month intermission in the middle of its career).

It is highly unlikely that the sire will mitigate the mare's unsoundness, seeing how Bodemeister made all of 6 starts himself while his sire made 8 starts and his dam made 4 starts.

As a stallion, Bodemeister put in a modest first crop performance at best last year.

As for American Anthem's races, his debut appears to grow weaker by the second unless you consider Iliad's tail-swishing dry heave in the stretch of the San Felipe cause for optimism. So Conflated and Sheer Flattery have tanked in top company (or what passes for top company these days).

The Sham has been terrible. Aside from Gormley's dusting on Saturday, Colonel Samsen has failed twice, Term of Art twice, and Big Hit went to the sidelines. Blabimir, who was a DNF, would have had the dubious distinction of having 3 DNFs on his record in 5 career starts had Mario Gutierrez had any mercy last out in the San Vincente, in which he walked across the finish line some 50+ lengths behind the rest of the field (in a sprint).

On the bright side, Bird is the Word came out of this "graded stakes" to break his maiden next time out...on the grass.