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    Horse racing notes: ‘Gold’ skips Santa Anita race to chase big pot at Churchill
    • April 30, 2026

    Gold Phoenix will be scratched from a softer spot in the Grade II Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday to run for big money in the Grade I Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill Downs. The Whittingham’s purse is down to $200,000, while the Turf Classic’s has been raised this year from $1 million to $1.5 million, so winning the former would be worth less ($120,000) than finishing third in the latter ($150,000). Eight-year-old Gold Phoenix, seeking his 10th graded stakes victory and first outside California for trainer Phil D’Amato, will be ridden by Hector Berrios as he faces Rhetorical, Test Score, Program Trading and six others in the 1⅛-mile Turf Classic. Mondego, Flashiest and The Padre now head a six-horse Whittingham.

    • Several Santa Anita jockeys are at Churchill Downs to ride California horses in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, Saturday’s Derby, and undercard races. Friday, Juan Hernandez has Queen Maxima seeking a repeat in the Unbridled Sidney Stakes turf sprint for fillies and mares, and Meaning in the Oaks; and Kazushi Kimura has Brooklyn Blonde in the Oaks. Saturday, Hernandez has Usha in the Derby City Distaff, Greenwhich Villlage in the American Turf, and Cornucopian in the Churchill Downs Stakes, as well as Potente in the Derby; Mike Smith has So Happy, Edwin Maldonado has Pavlovian and Berrios has Intrepido in the Derby. Smith won the Derby with Giacomo and Justify; it’s the Derby debut for Hernandez, Maldonado and Berrios.

    • Santa Anita will have a late first-post time of 3:15 p.m. Friday to align its eight-race program with Churchill Downs’ 13-race card. The Kentucky Oaks is scheduled for 5:40 p.m. PDT, which would fall between Santa Anita’s fifth and sixth races. The Arcadia track will start at the usual 1 p.m. Saturday. The Kentucky Derby is set for 3:57 PDT, between Santa Anita’s sixth and seventh.

    • Trainers John Shirreffs and Christophe Clement and sprinter Kona Gold received belated recognition when they were elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame last week. Shirreffs died in Arcadia in February after a career that included Zenyatta and Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo, and Clement died in 2025. Also to be enshrined Aug. 7 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., are Gulch, Mongo and trainer David A. Whiteley, all chosen in the “historic review” category. Southern California trainers John Sadler and Doug O’Neill were also on the ballot this year but received less than the majority of votes needed for election; the racing Hall of Fame doesn’t make vote counts public.

    • The 9-year-old quarter horse Cattail Cove ($5.20), with jockey Martin Arriaga, won the Grade III Kaweah Bar Handicap at Los Alamitos on Saturday. Cattail Cove had been second, fifth, third and fifth in previous tries in the 350-yard race.

    • The death of Low Humidity, an unraced thoroughbred 4-year-old gelding, from an injury April 25 at the San Luis Rey training center, is the 14th fatality in 2025 in racing or training from musculoskeletal and other causes at Santa Anita, Los Alamitos and San Luis Rey. That approximately matches the average number of such racehorse deaths in this part of the state from Jan. 1-April 25 since the California Horse Racing Board began posting fatality data in 2020.

    • Ka Ying Rising, the great Hong Kong sprinter, ran his winning streak to 20 races by winning the $3 million Chairman’s Sprint Prize at Sha Tin on Sunday.

    SANTA ANITA LEADERS

    (Through Sunday)

    Jockeys / Wins

    Juan Hernandez / 8

    Armando Ayuso / 8

    Antonio Fresu / 8

    Emisael Jaramillo / 5

    Hector Berrios / 4

    Trainers / Wins

    Phil D’Amato / 6

    Steve Knapp / 4

    Jeff Mullins / 3

    Andy Mathis / 3

    (10 tied) / 2

    UPCOMING STAKES

    SANTA ANITA

    Saturday

    • $200,000, Grade II Charles Whittingham Stakes, 4-year-olds and up, 1¼ miles on turf

    Sunday

    • $100,000 Santa Barbara Stakes, fillies and mares, 4 and up, 1½ miles on turf

    LOS ALAMITOS

    Saturday

    • $25,000 La Pacifica Handicap, quarter-horse 3-year-old fillies, 350 yards

    Sunday

    • $50,000, Grade II Miss Princess Handicap, quarter-horse fillies and mares, 3 and up, 350 yards

    ​ Orange County Register 

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