SANTA ANITA STABLE NOTES – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2019

By Ed Golden —-

Paradise Woods; Zoe Metz Photo

• ‘PARADISE’ NOT LOST, RETURNS FOR SHIRREFFS
• FIRSTS ALL AROUND AT SANTA ANITA SATURDAY
• SINGLE TICKET JACKPOT IS STILL UP FOR GRABS

PARADISE WOODS DEBUTS FOR SHIRREFFS IN SANTA MONICA

Multiple Grade I winner Paradise Woods is scheduled to make her first start under the direction of trainer John Shirreffs in this Saturday’s Grade II Santa Monica Stakes for older fillies and mares at seven furlongs.

It would mark the first race in seven months for the five-year-old daughter of Union Rags formerly trained by Richard Mandella.

“She’s been breezing very nicely,” Shirreffs said, alluding to two of her most recent drills being the fastest of the day at the distance of six furlongs, a 1:11.60 move from the gate on Jan. 26 followed by a 1:10.80 recorded on Friday.

“I’m just hoping for good weather,” added Shirreffs, who has had Paradise Woods in his care since December. Joel Rosario, who has expressed keen satisfaction working her, rides her for the first time competitively.

Flavien Prat, who had ridden Paradise Woods in all of her previous 11 races, will be at Laurel Park Saturday to ride Spiced Perfection for Peter Miller in the Barbara Fritchie Stakes.

“Getting a horse like Paradise Woods certainly picks your head up a little bit,” Shirreffs said, laughing. “It puts a little bounce in your step. At the barn she’s very well behaved, but like a lot of good race horses, when they see the track, they take it up a notch.”

As the trainer of super mare Zenyatta, John Shirreffs would know.

Working on a fast main track Sunday for possible Santa Monica starts were a trio of Bob Baffert runners–Dream Tree, Emboldened and Marley’s Freedom. The latter two went five furlongs in company and were clocked in identical bullet times of 58.80. Dream Tree, working solo, also received a bullet for a six furlong move in 1:11.60.

FIRSTS ALL AROUND AT SANTA ANITA SATURDAY

Multi-cultural firsts were the order of the day Saturday at Santa Anita. Posting their first victories at The Great Race Place were jockeys Andrea Atzeni, Jean Diaz Jr. and Shane Foley.

The 27-year-old Atzeni, a native of the Mediterranean island Sardinia, won the Grade III Thunder Road Stakes for trainer Simon Callaghan on True Valour at a $25 win payoff; 18-year-old apprentice Diaz from Puerto Rico took the sixth race aboard Hero For Hire ($26) trained by Jeff Bonde; and the 30-year-old Foley, a native of Ireland, posted a $34.40 upset with John Sadler trainee Platinum Warrior in the Grade III San Marcos Stakes.

“It felt so good to win here, especially this soon,” said Diaz, whose father, 41-year-old Puerto Rican riding great Juan, and mother, Amarilis, were on hand to see Jean record his landmark triumph on only his third mount here.

“They both took the redeye back to Puerto Rico last night,” said Jean (pronounced John). “My father rides in six races at Hipodromo Camarero Race Track there today.”

Saturday was a first for Callaghan as well. In addition to True Valour, the native of England who turns 39 on March 7, also saddled odds-on favorite Bellafina to win the Grade II Las Virgenes Stakes. “That’s the first time I won two stakes on the same day,” Callaghan said.

SANTA ANITA’S 20 CENT SINGLE TICKET JACKPOT REMAINS UNSOLVED

With just one exception, double digit payoffs were the order of the day Saturday in Santa Anita’s popular 20 cent Single Ticket Pick Six Jackpot, with the result being there were two consolation tickets with six winners, each worth $56,382.

As has been the case now for three consecutive days, there were three “live” horses in the 11th and final race, but all three, #8 Lucky Lately (8-1), #1 Lucky Stepper (33-1) and #4 Tip Top Gal (64-1) fell far short, finishing fourth, ninth and 12th, respectively.

With $211,098 in “new” money wagered, Saturday’s total Jackpot pool was $275,617, which has helped to create a Rainbow Pick Six carryover into Sunday of $112,846.50.

Approximate post time for race four, the beginning of the Rainbow Six, is 2:02 p.m. PT.

FINISH LINES: Mario Gutierrez has been the go-to rider for owner J. Paul Reddam ever since he won the 2012 Kentucky Derby on Reddam’s I’ll Have Another trained by Doug O’Neill, so when the jockey recently changed agents from Tom Knust to Matt Nakatani, Reddam’s blessing understandably was in order. “The first person Mario contacted was Paul,” Nakatani said. “Paul is Mario’s number one man and been a loyal supporter of Mario for quite some time now. Without Paul’s backing Mario wouldn’t be where he is today. The change was kind of slow developing but Paul supported Mario. Mario wants to be a top flight rider here and has certain goals he wants to achieve. Sometimes a change is good and we’ll work very hard to get back into the top 10.” . . . Santa Anita will be dark for live racing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, presenting live racing again Thursday, Feb. 14 at 12:30 p.m. The track will be open for simulcast racing Wednesday with free general admission and parking. Admission gates open at 10 a.m.

SANTA ANITA STATISTICS
(Current Through Saturday, Feb. 9)
Jockey Mts 1st 2nd 3rd Win% ITM% Money Won
Flavien Prat 129 29 25 19 22% 57% $1,962,641
Joel Rosario 140 27 25 26 19% 56% $1,538,658
Heriberto Figueroa 126 20 11 19 16% 40% $727,145
Geovanni Franco 122 16 15 16 13% 39% $793,508
Tiago Pereira 92 16 12 9 17% 40% $618,842
Mike Smith 51 16 10 7 31% 65% $1,063,834
Rafael Bejarano 98 15 14 17 15% 47% $806,008
Tyler Baze 139 14 24 19 10% 41% $984,443
Drayden Van Dyke 92 13 15 11 14% 42% $751,699
Assael Espinoza 76 10 4 10 13% 32% $344,624
Joseph Talamo 91 9 15 14 10% 42% $751,699
Ruben Fuentes 62 8 8 12 13% 45% $286,921
Kent Desormeaux 62 8 7 11 13% 42% $617,074
Edwin Maldonado 44 6 6 1 14% 30% $227,305
Aaron Gryder 36 6 3 1 17% 28% $163,974
Agapito Delgadillo 39 5 5 4 13% 36% $141,198
Martin Pedroza 46 5 4 4 11% 28% $168,542

Trainer Mts 1st 2nd 3rd Win% ITM% Money Won
Doug O’Neill 105 18 19 14 17% 49% $868,249
Peter Miller 72 14 12 9 19% 49% $830,396
Richard Baltas 76 12 17 13 16% 55% $833,819
John Sadler 52 11 12 9 21% 62% $766,950
Jerry Hollendorfer 63 11 10 8 17% 46% $791,067
Bob Baffert 50 9 8 7 18% 48% $812,435
J Keith Desormeaux 37 9 7 5 24% 57% $371,622
Philip D’ Amato 61 8 9 9 13% 43% $580,420
William E. Morey 42 8 9 8 19% 60% $400,359
Mark Glatt 42 7 8 5 17% 48% $299,932
Jeff Mullins 35 7 7 6 20% 57% $475,164
Richard Mandella 29 7 2 2 24% 38% $251,358
Vladimir Cerin 31 6 4 4 19% 45% $236,944
Simon Callaghan 23 6 3 5 26% 61% $422,894
Peter Eurton 31 5 5 3 16% 42% $262,365
Brian Koriner 21 5 4 1 24% 48% $341,082
William Spawr 16 5 2 2 31% 56% $135,878
Steve Knapp 3 5 1 5 16% 35% $121,378
Eric Kruljac 13 5 0 1 38% 46% $151,924

ABOUT SANTA ANITA PARK
Santa Anita Park is a Stronach Group company, North America’s leading Thoroughbred racetrack owner/operator. The Stronach Group racetracks include Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park & Casino, Golden Gate Fields, Portland Meadows, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, home of the world-famous Preakness. The company owns and operates the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida, and is one of North America’s top race horse breeders through its award-winning Adena Springs operation The Stronach Group is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pari-mutuel wagering systems, technologies and services. Its companies include AmTote, a global leader in wagering technology; Xpressbet, an Internet and telephone account wagering service; and Monarch Content Management, which acts as a simulcast purchase and sales agent of horseracing content for numerous North American racetracks and wagering outlets. The Stronach Group is North America’s premier supplier of virtual online horseracing games, as well as a leading producer of social media content for the horseracing industry.