[Danzig]

here it is:

Change in stakes would benefit Zenyatta
By Jay Privman
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita officials on Friday said they are "discussing the possibility" of changing the conditions of the Grade 1, $250,000 Santa Margarita Invitational on March 13 from a handicap to a stakes race, a development that could result in Zenyatta carrying a much more favorable weight assignment.

Zenyatta is scheduled to make her first start of the year in the Santa Margarita and will use that as a prep for a potential meeting April 9 with Rachel Alexandra in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park.

"We're discussing the possibility," Rick Hammerle, racing secretary at Santa Anita, said in his office Friday morning. "The race is under discussion. We don't want to be the reason why Zenyatta doesn't run. She's potentially going to run for $5 million carrying 123 pounds. Why would she carry 130 pounds for $250,000? It doesn't make any sense."

Mike Harlow, Santa Anita's director of racing, added: "We think everybody in the country wants to see those two horses meet. We want to align ourselves with that."
The Santa Margarita, at 1 1/8 miles, has been part of Santa Anita's stakes calendar since the track opened in the winter of 1934-35. It has been run as in invitational since 1968 and counts among its roster of winners such greats as Busher, Two Lea, Bed o'Roses, Silver Spoon, Gamely, Susan's Girl, Tizna, Glorious Song, Lady's Secret, Bayakoa, Paseana, and Azeri. The race was won last year by Life Is Sweet, who, like Zenyatta, is trained by John Shirreffs.

All of Santa Anita's Grade 1 stakes races for 4-year-olds and older during the winter meeting are run under handicap conditions. But at the fall Oak Tree meeting, similar races - most of them preps for Breeders' Cup races - are run under weight-for-age allowance conditions, similar to the Breeders' Cup.

"I've always been a traditionalist, but the trend in the industry seems to be to get away from handicaps in Grade 1 races," Harlow said. "We're certainly looking at it here."

Zenyatta has not raced since capturing the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 7.