Horse racing followers get to unwrap one remaining Christmas reward yearly on Dec. 26 when the southern California winter racing season celebrates its conventional day-after-Christmas opening day at Santa Anita Park. The date marks the beginning of a brand new meet – known as the Traditional Meet – and kicks off one of many nation’s premier annual winter racing seasons. The upcoming meet marks the 90th anniversary of the monitor, which opened in 1934-’35 and shortly grew to become one of many signature racetracks of the 20th century and into the 21st.
SoCal racing’s 2024-25 Traditional Meet at “The Nice Race Place” will proceed on a principally three-day-a-week foundation, Fridays by means of Sundays plus holidays, till April 6. Racing at Santa Anita will then take a brief break and proceed with its spring racing season from April 18 till June 15 (known as the Hollywood Meet because it picks up dates as soon as held by now-closed Hollywood Park).
Santa Anita Park will host 78 race dates together with the April-to-June a part of the schedule. A few of the highlights of the meets would be the operating of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 1 and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 5.
Main Santa Anita Jockeys
The favourite to win the Santa Anita Traditional Assembly jockey title by means of April 6 is Juan Hernandez, who has received the final three winter (Traditional) titles together with 53 wins (22%) eventually 12 months’s meet. Hernandez added one other 36 wins within the spring (Hollywood) portion of the 2024 meet, and in addition was the runaway main jockey on the 2022-23 and 2021-22 Santa Anita winter meets together with a 63-win season (25%) two years in the past.
Antonio Fresu has continued to inch nearer and nearer to Hernandez at Santa Anita and might be able to launch one other bid at successful the jockey title this season. He got here up only one win in need of the catching Hernandez for the spring title in 2024 after having completed second to Henandez eventually 12 months’s winter meet with 46 winners (18%).
The remainder of the highest 10 jockeys eventually 12 months’s Santa Anita 2023-24 Traditional/winter meet when it comes to wins had been Flavien Prat, Frankie Dettori, Umberto Rispoli, Hector Berrios, Kyle Frey, Kazushi Kimura, Edwin Maldonado, and Tyler Baze.
Santa Anita Prime Trainers
Within the coach standings, Doug O’Neill is the defending champion on the Traditional meet after ending with 31 wins from 163 starters for 19% final 12 months. He unseated the earlier 12 months’s main coach, Phil D’Amato, who received the 2022-23 Santa Anita Traditional meet with 32 wins (18%) to account for what, on the time, was his third straight meet title. D’Amato settled for third within the standings final 12 months with 28 wins from 160 starters for 18%.
Bob Baffert has been very constant the final two years at this Santa Anita meet, the place he received 24 races from 89 starters (27%) final 12 months in a season that was similar to the 12 months earlier than when he received 27 races from 99 starters for an equal 27% successful proportion.
The coach with essentially the most momentum presently on the SoCal circuit is Mark Glatt, who received 23 races (21%) on the Traditional meet two years in the past after which moved all the best way as much as second within the standings final 12 months when he received 29 races and posted a hefty 28% win proportion. You possibly can count on that top degree of success to proceed this season based mostly on Glatt’s massive season on the current Del Mar fall meet the place he received the coaching title by a snug margin.
Different prime Santa Anita winter trainers ought to embrace Steve Knapp (19 wins for 18% eventually winter’s meet), John Sadler (18 wins, 17%), Jeff Mullins (16 wins, 19%), Michael McCarthy (15 wins, 16%), Richard Mandella (14 wins, 26%), and Peter Eurton (14 wins, 16%). Trainers like Peter Miller, George Papaprodromou and Richard Baltas can even win their share.
Santa Anita Primary Monitor Traits
Let’s get to know “The Nice Race Place” by taking a fast take a look at some prevailing biases at Santa Anita Park in numerous sorts of races based mostly on the statistics from the identical meet final 12 months.
When it comes to operating fashion preferences and the successful monitor profile on the primary monitor, pace tends to do very nicely in all sprints, particularly at 5 ½ furlongs the place 65% of the winners (11-of-17) raced on or near the tempo inside a size of the lead. Pace in these races is very lethal from the within three posts.
On the mostly run grime dash distance of six furlongs, pace was additionally excellent with 57% of the winners (38-of-67) racing on or near the tempo. Solely three of these 67 winners (4%) at six furlongs had been closers that raced 4 or extra lengths off the tempo, so that you higher wager horses with a minimum of tactical pace if you happen to hope to have any likelihood to win these races.
The tendencies at 6 ½ furlongs and 7 furlongs are extra of the identical with pace horses successful 19 of the 31 races (61%) at 6 ½ furlongs, whereas closers received solely 4 of the 31 races (13%). At seven furlongs, pace horses received 10 of the 16 races accounting for 63% of the winners, whereas closers received simply two of the 16 races. Early pace horses from the three inside posts are the very best bets at seven furlongs. That section of the starters received 7 of the 16 races (44%) run at seven furlongs final winter.
Santa Anita Grime Routes
Most of Santa Anita’s routes this season can be run at one mile if the meet is something like final 12 months’s the place 61 of the 75 routes had been at a mile. Horses that race on or near the lead are inclined to get pleasure from a tactical benefit in any respect distances on the Santa Anita important monitor, and this additionally consists of routes. Within the 75 route races run at Santa Anita eventually 12 months’s corresponding winter meet, 43 winners raced on or near the tempo (57% of all winners). Horses racing 4 or extra lengths off the tempo received solely 5 of the 75 routes, a win proportion of solely 7%, together with 4 races at one mile and solely one of many 14 longer routes run on the meet.
When it comes to submit positions in Santa Anita grime routes, center posts 4-6 did the very best with winners in 42 of final 12 months’s 75 grime route races (56%). This was even higher than horses from inside posts 1-3, who received 31 of the 75 grime routes (41%). The typical discipline dimension in Santa Anita grime routes at the moment of the 12 months is simply six horses per race, so the surface posts are hardly ever related.
Santa Anita Turf Suggestions
In terms of grass racing, Santa Anita’s turf course is dwelling to a number of the nation’s finest over the winter. The Santa Anita turf course typically performs particularly reasonable to all operating types and operating paths.
In Santa Anita turf routes, early pace horses as a bunch and stalkers coming from between one and 4 lengths off the tempo as a bunch had roughly the identical success final season, with the front-runners successful 39 of the 104 turf routes and stalkers successful 40 (38% of the races every). Closers had a lot much less success with 25 wins to account for twenty-four% of the races.
With a median discipline dimension of narrowly below eight horses per race, exterior posts weren’t a lot of an element, but it surely’s value noting that these horses typically did nicely to win 21 races, which is statistically greater than they need to have received from a restricted variety of starters from these posts.
The opposite submit place development pertains primarily to hurry horses, which received solely eight instances from inside posts 1-3, however did significantly better from center attracts. Speedsters from posts 4-6 received 23 of the 104 turf routes accounting for 22% of the general winners of the turf routes run on the meet.
Trademark Santa Anita Turf Sprints
Santa Anita runs turf sprints at 6 ½ furlongs on its signature downhill course, in addition to flat turf sprints from its newer backstretch turf dash chute at 5 ½ furlongs, six furlongs, and 6 ½ furlongs (very hardly ever are races run at 5 furlongs).
The turf sprints beginning on the backstretch have turn out to be rather more prevalent at Santa Anita than the downhill sprints. These flat turf sprints have favored speedy varieties or horses capable of keep inside a size of the lead since their inception, however the stats from final 12 months’s meet had been fairly even between front-runners and stalkers, with solely the closers from greater than 4 lengths behind being at an obstacle in these races. Inside and center posts do the very best, however exterior posts aren’t horrible both.
Within the downhill turf sprints, the course is used a lot much less usually than it was once and there have been solely 23 downhill sprints run eventually 12 months’s corresponding meet. Information collected over a few years and many years reveals that these races favor horses with center and out of doors posts whereas posts 1-2-3 have lengthy been thought-about disadvantageous. These downhill sprints are typically truthful to all operating types, and that was the case eventually 12 months’s meet the place speedsters (eight), stalkers (eight), and closers (seven) break up up the wins pretty evenly.
Have a terrific season at The Nice Race Place. Better of luck at Santa Anita!
