Horse racing notes: Hot Rod Charlie reminds some of I’ll Have Another

SANTA ANITA LEADERS

Through Thursday

JOCKEYS / WINS

Flavien Prat / 68

Juan Hernandez / 47

Umberto Rispoli / 35

Abel Cedillo / 34

Joel Rosario / 29

TRAINERS / WINS

Philip D’Amato / 26

Peter Miller / 24

Bob Baffert / 22

Richard Baltas / 22

Doug O’Neill / 20

WEEKEND STAKES AT SANTA ANITA

Saturday

• $100,000 Grade III Santa Ana Stakes, fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up, 1-1/4 miles (turf)

Sunday

• $75,000 Santana Mile, 4-year-olds and up, 1 mile

DOWN THE STRETCH

• Hot Rod Charlie stamped himself as a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender by winning last weekend’s Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds. He could give trainer Doug O’Neill his third Derby victory, joining I’ll Have Another (2012) and Nyquist (2016). Hot Rod Charlie reminds O’Neill’s longtime assistant, Leandro Mora, of I’ll Have Another. “(I’ll Have Another) had his ups and downs before he became the horse he was at the end of his career,” Mora told Santa Anita’s Ed Golden. “He broke his maiden as a 3-year-old but was nothing but a speed horse early on. He got better with age, and Hot Rod Charlie is similar.”

• Pool 5 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager begins Friday at 9 a.m. and concludes Sunday at 3 p.m. Essential Quality, the 2020 2-year-old male champion scheduled to run in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 3, is the 3-1 favorite, followed by Greatest Honour at 4-1 and the Bob Baffert-trained Concert Tour (9-2). Hot Rod Charlie is 6-1. Baffert’s three other colts: Medina Spirit (20-1), Hozier (30-1) and Spielberg (50-1). The Peter Eurton-trained Dream Shake and Rock Your World, trained by John Sadler, are 50-1. “All Other 3-Year-Olds” is 20-1.

• Del Mar announced this week it is enhancing its popular “Ship and Win” program for the 2021 summer meet that begins Friday, July 16. The program will provide a $4,000 starter bonus for horses that come from outside California for their initial start at Del Mar with a further 50% purse bonus for all dirt starters and a 40% enhancement for turf races. The purse bonuses apply to additional starts at the meet. This year, Del Mar will apply the bonuses to horses that make their initial Ship and Win start at Santa Anita in May or June. Stakes horses are not eligible for the purses bonuses and first-time starters also are not eligible.

— Art Wilson

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