SANTA ANITA LEADERS

(Through Monday)

Jockeys / Wins

Juan Hernandez / 19

Umberto Rispoli / 13

Hector Berrios / 10

Armando Ayuso / 8

Kazushi Kimura / 7

Antonio Fresu / 4

Tyler Baze / 4

Trainers / Wins

Phil D’Amato / 11

Bob Baffert / 7

Jeff Mullins / 6

Doug O’Neill / 6

John Sadler / 5

Michael McCarthy / 5

UPCOMING STAKES

SANTA ANITA

Saturday

• $80,000 Lure Stakes, 3-year-olds and up, 1 mile on turf

Sunday

• $85,000 Anoakia Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 6 furlongs

LOS ALAMITOS

Saturday

• $25,000 Azure Three Stakes, quarter horses, 3 and up, 220 yards

DOWN THE STRETCH

• There’s a hint of class in Santa Anita’s minor stakes during the lull before the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. Saturday’s Lure Stakes, which effectively bars 2025 stakes winners, gives returning champion Sumter (Mike Smith riding) and 2024 graded-stakes winners Goliad (Kazushi Kimura), Endlessly (Umberto Rispoli) and Watsonville (Antonio Fresu) a chance to end a losing streak.

• The Breeders’ Cup announced the schedule for the 14 races at Del Mar. One change has the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic slotted as race 9 at 3:25 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1, one race later than last year, with three Breeders’ Cup races to follow instead of four. As usual, Friday, Oct. 31, spotlights 2-year-olds and Saturday is for 3-year-olds and up. The race and TV schedule, and other information about the event, is at BreedersCup.com.

• Thorpedo Anna won’t go for a repeat win in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The 2024 North American Horse of the Year has been retired and will go to live at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Lexington, Ky., according to an announcement Wednesday by that breeding operation and trainer Kenny McPeek. It’s no surprise after her fourth-place finish behind winner Gin Gin in the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 5. The 4-year-old filly earned $5,440,913 by winning 12 of 16 starts, including seven Grade I stakes.

• Cavalieri, potential favorite for this year’s Distaff, won’t run at the Breeders’ Cup but isn’t being retired. Trainer Bob Baffert told FanDuel TV the 4-year-old filly, unbeaten in five starts, “will need some extra time” but didn’t say why. Seismic Beauty, another Baffert-trained 4-year-old filly, is the 8-5 favorite for the Nov. 1 Distaff on David Aragona’s line in the Daily Racing Form.

• Santa Anita said it will begin carding races under class conditions that use a “performance-based horse rating” developed by Equibase. We’ll see how that works starting as early as next week.

• In quarter-horse racing, 4-year-old Stanley Cartel ($4.40) and jockey Armando Cervantes won the Grade I Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship on Saturday by holding off millionaires Empressum and Jeriko. The top three were separated by two heads in the 440-yard race.

• A colt named Further Ado broke his maiden on the third try by 20 lengths in a 1 1/16-mile race at Keeneland on Oct. 10 with Irad Ortiz Jr. riding for trainer Brad Cox. The 1:43.52 clocking earned a 98 Beyer speed figure, matching Breeders’ Cup Juvenile favorite Ted Noffey for highest among 2-year-olds going 1 mile or longer in 2025. With the Breeders’ Cup coming up too soon, Further Ado is expected to start next in the Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club on Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs.

• Jeff Siegel was remembered as a loving brother and uncle, a music fan and a political newshound as well as a sharp handicapper and horse owner, in a funeral service Monday at Mount Sinai Simi Valley. Siegel, 74, died Oct. 4 at his home in Duarte after battling cancer.

• Trainer Phil D’Amato, a San Pedro native, was among six people honored for accomplishments “in sports and life” at the city’s annual Sportswalk of Fame ceremony Monday. D’Amato, 49, who has degrees in political science from USC and equine science from the University of Arizona’s Racetrack Industry Program, is a frequent leading trainer at Santa Anita and Del Mar.

— Kevin Modesti

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