MiamiScreamingEagles
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- Jan 17, 2004
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Saturday, April 20, 2024
Santa Anita (California):
- Chad Brown entered horses at four tracks. He won five times and finished a successful day 11 5-3-1.
- The Ortiz Brothers: Irad has 102 wins this year, two more than Jose. No other rider in North America has more than 80.
- Chad Brown, surprisingly cold at the Gulfstream meet for much of the winter, is in a more comfortable spot in New York where he won all four races he entered and finished 8 4-2-1.
- Manny Franco was nearly flawless today going 5 4-0-0. He was a perfect 3 3-0-0 riding for Chad Brown.
- Turf: Racing returned this weekend.
- Card: Five of the 11 races were stakes.
- Race 4: Rakia (Jevian Toledo/Brittany Russell) completed one of the most exciting races of the day.
- Race 6: Riley G (Jevian Toledo/Brittany Russell), once bought for $625,000, broke her maiden last time out and today returned to the winner's circle. She likes the course and a switch to trainers from the dynamic Bob Baffert to the stellar Brittany Russell.
- Jevian Toledo rode four winners including twice for Brittany Russell.
- Jorge Ruiz rode three winners on board four mounts. He scored a pair of stakes wins. He won twice for Graham Motion.
- Turf: Racing returned this weekend.
- Handle: $18 million.
- Race 8: Silver Knott (Flavien Prat/Charlie Appleby) won the $350,000 Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes. The winner was 0-for-7 in the United States since arriving from overseas with a 5 3-0-1 mark.
- Race 9: Kingsbarns (Luis Saez/Todd Pletcher) won the Grade 3 $300,000 Ben Ali Stakes. This Uncle Mo colt looks outrageous to me. He ran in the Kentucky Derby last year but was out just once since June until today. He is 7 5-1-0 lifetime. .He was purchased for $800,000 and has surpassed that mark in career earnings.
- John Velazquez-Wesley Ward teamed twice and both horses won.
- Junior Alvarado is fifth in wins but owns the best winning percentage (24%) among top 10 riders in victories.
- Wesley Ward, Chad Brown, Cherie DeVaux and Brad Cox are among trainers sizzling this important meet.
- Handle: $11 million.
- Cristian Torres and Francisco Arrieta both won three times.
- Race 11: Skippylongstocking (Jose Ortiz/Saffie Joseph) won the Grade 2 $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap, the day's biggest purse in North America. Skippy is 23 8-2-4 and now at the age of five has earned well over $2.2 million. Not bad for an Exaggerator colt who sold for $37,000.
- Race 9: Informed Patriot (Ricardo Santana. Jr./Steve Asmussen) won the battle of stablemates in a thriller defeating Imperial Gun (Joel Rosario/Steve Asmussen).
Santa Anita (California):
- Kazushi Kimura rode three winners including two MSW races and a pair for Bob Baffert.
- Hector Berrios rode three winners including the opener and finale.
- Race 3: Normandy Landing broke his maiden in a $54,000 MSW. The son to Gun Runner was purchased for $1.05 million.
- Race 7: Mr. Fisk (Kazushi Kimura/Bob Baffert) won the $100,000 Grade3 Californian Stakes. After the race, Baffert stated strong words for Kimura, who normally rides at Woodbine (ON), regarding potentially getting some of Baffert's top mounts at Del Mar. I sense we missed an all-time great sire with the premature death of Arrogate who fathered this winner.
- Race 8: Medoro (Antonio Fresu/Peter Eurton) won the $100,000 Grade 3 Providencia Stakes by a nose.
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