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Santa Anita Derby draws duos from Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill

March 30, 2026

The Santa Anita Derby on Saturday will feature rematches of Potente and Robusta and the powerful Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill barns.

The seven-horse lineup, from the rail out, was set Monday: 1. Cherokee Nation, jockey Florent Geroux; 2. Potente, Juan Hernandez; 3. Vitruvian Man, Antonio Fresu; 4. Robusta, Emisael Jaramillo; 5. So Happy, Mike Smith; 6. Start the Ride, Armando Ayuso, and 7. Intrepido, Hector Berrios.

Morning-line odds are to be posted Tuesday. The 89th running of the Santa Anita Derby is scheduled as the 10th race on a card starting at noon.

The $500,000, Grade I race for 3-year-olds going 1⅛ miles is the main event of Santa Anita’s winter-spring season, having drawn on-site crowds of 30,000 or more to the Arcadia track in each of the past three years. It’s also the West Coast springboard to the 1¼-mile Kentucky Derby on May 2.

While Potente has already earned enough qualifying points to all but guarantee himself a spot in the Kentucky Derby, the others will be scrambling to add enough points to get to Churchill Downs.

Potente will come in with a 2-for-2 record after getting up to win by a head at 8-1 odds in the 1-1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes on March 7. The son of Into Mischief is trained by Baffert, the eight-time Santa Anita Derby and six-time Kentucky Derby winner who also has Cherokee Nation.

Robusta burst to a clear lead in mid-stretch and finished a much-improved second at 67-1 odds in the San Felipe. The son of Accelerate is trained by O’Neill, the two-time Santa Anita Derby and two-time Kentucky Derby winner who also has Vitruvian Man.

Two other graded-stakes winners are entered: Intrepido, trained by three-time Santa Anita Derby winner Jeff Mullins, will try to improve on his second to since-sidelined Plutarch in the 1-mile Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 7. So Happy, from Mark Glatt’s barn, will aim to bounce back from a third-place finish in the San Felipe.

The Derby is one of five stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday. The other big one is the Santa Anita Oaks for 3-year-old fillies with a chance to get into the May 1 Kentucky Oaks.

Orange County Register

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Santa Anita Derby draws duos from Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill

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