SANTA ANITA LEADERS

Through Thursday

JOCKEYS / WINS

Juan Hernandez / 91

Flavien Prat / 73

Tyler Baze / 44

Abel Cedillo / 37

Diego Herrera / 33

TRAINERS / WINS

Philip D’Amato / 49

Doug O’Neill / 37

John Sadler / 35

Mark Glatt / 28

Bob Baffert / 27

WEEKEND STAKES (SANTA ANITA)

Saturday

• $100,000 Grade III Desert Stormer Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 6 furlongs

• $100,000 Cinema Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1-1/8 miles (turf)

Sunday

• $75,000 Desert Code Stakes, 3-year-olds, 6 furlongs (turf)

DOWN THE STRETCH

• Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike, who shocked the racing world with his 80-1 victory on May 7, got his first experience over Belmont Park’s main track on Thursday morning, galloping 1½ miles over the sloppy going with regular exercise rider Gabriel Lagunes aboard. The son of Keen Ice arrived at Belmont on Wednesday for the Belmont Stakes on June 11. “He’s happy. I think he likes this track,” Lagunes told Belmont publicity. “He was fresh and was pulling a little, but he’s more relaxed here than at Churchill Downs.”

• Trainer Doug O’Neill told Horse Racing Nation this week that Hot Rod Charlie, idle since finishing second in the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 26, might make his next start in the $150,000 ungraded Salvator Mile on June 18 at Monmouth Park rather than the Grade II Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs two weeks later. “It’s still a little bit up in the air, but it will probably be the Salvator Mile,” O’Neill said. “I’ll continue to monitor his training and make sure he’s ready for that. But I like the mile for his comeback.”

• Becca Taylor, a nose shy of being 8-0 in her career, will try graded-stakes company for the first time Saturday when she tackles four others in the $100,000 Grade III Desert Stormer Stakes at Santa Anita. Becca Taylor, beaten by a nose in the Irish O’Brien Stakes down Santa Anita’s downhill turf course two starts back, took a trip north to Golden Gate Fields in her most recent start for trainer Steve Miyadi and owner Nick Alexander. She scored a one-length allowance victory going 6 furlongs as the 1-5 favorite.

— Art Wilson

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