Santa Anitas customary December 26 opening day card features a trio of stakes races: The Grade 1 La Brea, the Grade 1 Malibu, and the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile.
The 2014/2015 winter spring meet will be highlighted by the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in March and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in April with the track running Thursday-Sunday with the notable exception of the Wednesday, Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Holiday card. The December 26 opening day card features nine races beginning at 2 PM EST. The $300,000 Grade 1 Malibu features Shared Belief who tasted defeat for the first time in the Breeders’ Cup Classic where the colt finished fourth as the favorite. Shared Belief will face nine rivals – four of which hail from the Bob Baffert barn. Baffert will saddle a formidable group that includes Chitu, Indianapolis, Pimpernel, and Midnight Hawk.
The La Brea stakes will be led by the Simon Callaghan trained Taris who won her last start in a monster effort at Keeneland in the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes. Taris has won four of her last five and should take majority of the betting money along with Awesome Baby who will be making her first start winning the Sunland Park Oaks March 23.
The Mathis Brothers Mile could be the best betting race of the day with a full field of 14 entered to contest the eight furlong turf event. The red-hot Heart to Heart will make his first California start after winning a pair of stakes races at Churchill Downs in the fall.
The field is set for the $1 million Haskell, where Nyquist will be trying to re-stake his claim as the top three-year-old in the country.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $300,000 United Nations Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and three-eighths on the turf, the Grade 1 event has drawn a field of ten colts and geldings.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes, a key prep race for the Haskell Invitational (G1). The Grade 3 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth and has drawn a field of seven three-year-olds.
With five grade 1 races and a grade 2, the undercard for the June 11 Belmont stakes could be the best single day of racing on the calendar outside of the Breeders’ Cup.
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