New tax cuts mostly favor the rich across states this year

• May 4, 2025

By Kevin Hardy, Stateline.org

Missouri Republicans may take their tax-cutting efforts to new heights this year as lawmakers consider exempting profits from the sale of stocks, bonds and real estate from state income taxes.

Part of a broader push to eliminate the state income tax altogether, legislation making its way through the Capitol would provide an unprecedented benefit to the wealthy by excluding capital gains, the long-term earnings from the sale of assets. If approved, tax experts say, the legislation would mark the first time a state with an income tax has eliminated capital gains tax.

The Republican sponsors say the move would make the state more attractive for businesses and families.

“This bill is intended to energize Missouri’s economy,” Republican Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins said upon introducing the measure.

But state Democrats — and even some of their GOP colleagues— have criticized the measure as being overly favorable to the wealthy. Most states’ tax systems already put a higher tax burden on lower-income households. That trend only accelerated in this year’s legislative sessions, worrying advocates who want to see the rich pay a larger share.

“It is so egregious in just how grossly concentrated the benefits of the [Missouri] proposal would go to the richest people in the state and shift the state’s tax system to really privilege the owners of wealth over people who are earning a regular paycheck,” said David Cooper, an analyst at the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute.

The institute advocates for progressive state taxes — those that put the proportionately largest tax burdens on the highest earners. While Cooper advises against eliminating state income taxes, he said the Missouri move would be more harmful than eliminating the income tax outright.

“If you’re wiping away the income tax altogether, there’s at least some tax benefit going to lower-earning folks who are still paying income taxes,” he said. “If you’re just eliminating capital gains income taxes, you are just giving away money to the wealthiest people in the state, period.”

Some Democratic-led states, including Maryland and Washington, have moved to increase taxes on the wealthy this year. But several states — including Kansas, Kentucky and Mississippi — have made more regressive tax changes.

Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, noted that states still prioritize progressive spending through social service programs aiding the most vulnerable residents.

He said states compete against each other for business and residents in much more immediate ways than the federal government competes against other nations.

“So states are very focused on the competitive advantages associated with a pro-growth tax regime,” he said, “and that has led to less of an emphasis in many states on achieving progressivity through the tax code.”

‘Generational change’ to taxes

While several states have enacted high-profile tax cuts this year, the momentum is actually slowing, Walczak said.

With booming economies and an influx of federal cash in recent years, conservative and liberal states alike passed significant tax cuts. Of the 43 states that have some sort of income tax, 28 have made rate reductions since 2021, Walczak said.

“In many states, lawmakers simply accomplished much of what they had set out to do,” he said.

Economic uncertainty and the prospect of reduced federal aid also have made many lawmakers more cautious this legislative season, he said.

But lawmakers in several states — including Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia — have continued their march to eliminate state income taxes.

“Taxing people’s wages is bad because it undermines liberty,” Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers, a Republican, said this month in support of a proposed income tax cut, the Oklahoma Voice reported. “It undermines people’s freedoms. If government controls income, then it controls your life.”

This session, Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear signed a bill cutting the state income tax rate from 4% to 3.5%. Republican lawmakers have been slashing rates for years with the ultimate aim of eliminating the income tax altogether, despite concerns that more reliance on sales tax would disproportionately burden the poor. To partially offset the income tax reduction, the legislature expanded sales taxes to more services in 2018.

And Republican lawmakers in Kansas overrode a veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to move away from the state’s graduated income tax toward a flat tax of 4% that will mostly benefit the highest earners.

Last month, Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed legislation granting another cut in the state income tax. Officials there aim to phase out the income tax altogether over the coming years with gradual rate reductions, which Reeves characterized as“a generational change” for the state.

The Mississippi law also reduces the sales tax on groceries and increases the gas tax. Though the governor is already celebrating the end of state income tax, the law provides for incremental reductions in the coming years only if the state hits certain revenue targets.

Republican state Rep. Trey Lamar, a legislative sponsor, said income taxes disincentivize work — a particular problem for the state with the nation’s lowest workforce participation rate.

“A tax on work is a tax on productivity,” he said.

The left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says the law will make the state’s tax system more inequitable. Its analysis found that when fully implemented, the top 1% of households, who have average annual incomes of $1.4 million, will receive an average cut of $41,420, or roughly 3% of their annual income. But the bottom 20% of earners, who have average annual incomes of $13,400, would realize a tax cut of just $42 per year.

Lamar noted the legislation did not increase sales taxes across the board. With average sales tax burdens already lower than neighboring states like Alabama, he said the income tax elimination will only help Mississippi workers.

“We need more people working,” he said. “So if helping the working man is somehow seen as regressive, then I’d have to say I don’t fully understand that.”

Walczak, of the Tax Foundation, said the state can afford the initial rate reduction. But it’s unclear whether state revenues will hit the targets needed — and whether lawmakers will reassess the aim of eliminating income taxes.

As one of the nation’s poorest states, Mississippi is heavily reliant on federal funding and would be particularly vulnerable to an economic downturn.

“There’s not a guarantee that the state could afford that in the future, and Mississippi does not have a large budget to begin with, so that would be harder than in most other states if the economy slid,” he said. “It does require a willingness on lawmakers’ parts to be honest with themselves if the economy changes and decide whether a pause might be necessary.”

An uneven tax burden

Economic uncertainty and slowing revenues have put many states into budget holes this year, forcing lawmakers to consider spending cuts or tax increases.

To close budget gaps, some conservative and liberal states have considered new or higher taxes on marijuana, tobacco and soda.

But some liberal-led states are looking to taxes more focused on the wealthy. In Rhode Island, Democratic Gov. Daniel McKee has proposed a 10% tax on digital advertising revenue.

In Washington state, lawmakers approved raising capital gains taxes and business taxes to close a looming deficit, though it’s unclear whether Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, who has voiced skepticism, will sign off on those measures.

Maryland lawmakers, facing a $3 billion deficit, recently approved$1.6 billion in new taxes and fees. That includes two new high-income tax brackets and a new 3% sales tax on information technology and data services.

Moves like those that ask more of the wealthy could make some state tax systems more progressive, said Aidan Davis, the state policy director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. But most state tax proposals approved this year have primarily benefited the highest earners.

That’s particularly concerning because most state systems already favor the wealthy. In 41 states, the top 1% of earners pay a lower effective tax rate than any other group, according to an institute study.

In Missouri, the fate of the first-of-its-kind capital gains tax elimination remains up in the air.

Though versions of the proposal have passed both chambers, there are differences between the Senate and House legislation. That means the bill could go back to conference committee for further negotiation or go on to Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, who has identified capital gains among his tax cut priorities this year.

Missouri’s Department of Revenue estimated the exemption could cost $111 million per year. But an Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analysis of IRS data projects the change could cost $600 million or more.

If approved, the top 5% of Missouri households — those making more than $273,000 per year — will receive more than 80% of the benefit from capital gains exemption, Davis said.

“Doing so would let wealthy people collect tax-free passive income while you’re continuing to tax middle class workers and people with savings,” Davis said. “It’s just a really extreme proposal.”

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at [email protected].

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers wait out rain, extend winning streak to 7 games

• May 4, 2025

ATLANTA — The waiting was the hardest part – and the longest.

Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman each had three hits, including a home run, as the Dodgers waited out a thunderstorm to extend their winning streak to seven games with a 10-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves in a soggy game that took three hours to start – and two days to finish.

The scheduled start time arrived with a dry field, the tarp rolled up and put away. No rain was falling. Blooper was hosting a closest-to-the-pin contest in right field for a $100 gift card and a childrens’ choir had sung the National Anthem.

And then everyone sat and waited.

It was at least 30 minutes before the prophesied thunderstorm arrived. But when it did, it stuck around for over two hours, complete with lightning flashes and rumbling thunder.

The game didn’t start until 10:21 p.m. ET, Fox’s national broadcast managing to follow the late evening news on the East Coast.

Both teams had been warned to “hunker down” and expect a late night. So no players were seen on the field or in the dugout as the scheduled start time approached and passed.

After three hours of watching NBA or NHL playoff action in the clubhouse, playing games on their phones, eating or napping, the Dodgers’ patience was rewarded with another win.

During their seven-game winning streak, the Dodgers have had it pretty easy, outscoring their opponents (the Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins and Braves) 63-25 while batting .345 as a team with 17 doubles, four triples and 12 home runs.

Will Smith started Saturday’s belated scoring with a leadoff double in the second inning. He moved to third on a fly out and scored on a force out, the Braves failing to turn a potential inning-ending double play.

In the third, Ohtani took over, driving a 415-foot home run over the wall in center field. Mookie Betts followed with a single and scored on an RBI single by Teoscar Hernandez.

In the fourth, Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach – his name nearly as long as the rain delay – retired the first two batters but ran into more trouble at the top of the Dodgers’ order. Ohtani’s third hit of the game, a single, started it.

With Ohtani running, Betts shot a double down the left-field line to drive him in. Freeman ended Schwellenbach’s night with an RBI single. Lefty reliever Aaron Bummer replaced him and misplayed a dribbler up the first-base line by Teoscar Hernandez that allowed Freeman to score and put Hernandez in scoring position for Smith who drove him in with a single.

Freeman capped the night with a three-run home run in the eighth inning, pushing the Dodgers’ scoring into double digits for the third time in the past four games.

The seven-game win streak has been an example of what the Dodgers’ offense looks like when the top of their lineup is running on all cylinders. Ohtani has gone 11 for 27 with seven extra-base hits during the streak. Betts has gone 10 for 28. Freeman is 12 for 25 and Hernandez 13 for 31. Betts and Freeman have driven in 10 runs each, Hernandez 11.

Saturday’s offensive muscle gave Roki Sasaki his first MLB victory on a night when he looked less than comfortable working the late shift. He threw an MLB-career high 98 pitches to get through five innings while giving up three runs on six hits, including a solo home run by Ozzie Albies and an RBI triple by Eli White.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Canelo Alvarez defeats William Scull to reclaim undisputed title

• May 4, 2025

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Canelo Alvarez beat William Scull in a unanimous points decision Sunday to become undisputed super middleweight champion again.

Alvarez is a four-weight world champion and entered the fight with the WBA, WBC and WBO titles at 168 pounds.

He was stripped of the IBF belt last July when he declined to make a mandatory defense against Scull. He’d owned that title since November 2021 when he defeated Caleb Plant.

Alvarez became an undisputed titlist in the division for the second time when the judges scored it 115-113, 116-112, 119-109. The 34-year-old Mexican champion improved to 63-2-2, with 39 knockouts, and is unbeaten in 10 fights in the super middleweight category.

The fight against IBF champion Scull didn’t live up to the hype. The Cuba-born Scull entered unbeaten in 23 professional fights. He constantly moved around, dodging, shuffling and frustrating Alvarez, who later said he hated fighting that style of boxer.

Moments after the decision was declared, the promotion for a proposed Sept. 12 fight between Alvarez and Terence Crawford began, with both men facing each other in the ring.

Alvarez was fighting outside the U.S. or Mexico for the first time and had to make plenty of adjustments, including to the time zone. The fighters walked into the ring and the anthems started around 6:20 a.m. local time (11:20 p.m. ET Saturday) for the main bout in Riyadh, timed so it was in prime time on the U.S. West Coast.

The opening rounds were slow with both boxers feeling for range and the intensity gradually lifted with Scull throwing many more punches but not landing enough. Alvarez, by contrast, stayed patient and was landing body shots. In the end, Alvarez threw almost half as many punches as Scull (152-293) but landed one more (56-55), predominantly power shots to the body.

“It’s OK, we won. We’re here with the title as the champion,” Alvarez said, adding that neither the timing of the bout nor the quality of the contest was a problem because he’d plenty of time to prepare. “I’m a champion. I’m a professional, so that’s all, no excuse or anything.”

As for the September showdown against Crawford, who will be stepping up a weight to take on Alvarez?

“I feel great. Crawford is one of the best out there and, you know, I like to share the ring with that kind of fighter,” he said. “It’s my pleasure.”

Crawford was in the crowd watching in the Saudi capital.

“I’m feeling great. I’m feeling blessed. Things happen for a reason, and there’s a reason why I’m here,” he said. “In September, I’m showing the world what greatness look like.”

​ Orange County Register 

Nathan Ordaz, Jeremy Ebobisse lead LAFC past Dynamo

• May 4, 2025

LOS ANGELES — Seeking to break a pattern of slow starts and late rallies, the Los Angeles Football Club stepped up their tempo and intensity off the opening whistle Saturday at BMO Stadium.

Young Nathan Ordaz, who partnered in LAFC’s starting attack with an even younger David Martínez and explosive showstopper Denis Bouanga, gave LAFC a lead 10 minutes in, and the Black & Gold never looked back, defeating the Houston Dynamo 2-0.

Following a high-quality cross at the near post by the 19-year-old Martínez, Ordaz, 21, hit paydirt for his second MLS goal of the season.

Making a third start as goalkeeper for Houston, former Galaxy man Jonathan Bond stopped Ordaz’s first attempt (one of six first-half saves for the Englishman). However, the ball trickled behind Bond, allowing Ordaz, an LAFC homegrown and Van Nuys native, to touch home the rebound.

By pressing and counter pressing, LAFC (5-4-3, 17 points) limited the possession-happy Dynamo (2-5-4, 10 points) to four total shots, none on goal against Hugo Lloris, while peppering Bond and forcing him to make eight saves through 90 minutes and stoppage time.

This was Lloris’s fourth shutout in 10 starts.

LAFC eased whatever stress it may have felt down the stretch when substitute Jeremy Ebobisse, who had just replaced Ordaz, pounded a shot from the top of the box with his left foot in the 79th minute. The two-on-one sequence produced Bouanga’s third assist of the year when he fed Ebobisse with enough space to hit the shot.

Ebobisse’s second goal of the regular season joined his home opening game winner against Minnesota on Feb. 22.

After missing four weeks and five games due to an adductor injury, Saturday was Ebobisse’s third straight appearance for LAFC.

The 28-year-old forward, who signed as a free agent in the offseason, said this week that he expects to be ready when called upon and to make the most of those moments for himself and his teammates. On that front, he accomplished both.

Securing three points was exactly what LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo hoped for as the calendar turned to a busy month of May featuring seven regular season MLS games, including against the bottom three teams in the west (Houston was the first) and a trip to worst-in-the-east Montreal.

The outcome ended Houston’s string of four unbeaten matches that began when they defeated LAFC 1-0 in early April.

Meanwhile, it pushed the host’s streak of regular season results to four, taking eight out of 12 points over that stretch. LAFC improved to 7-1 in all competitions when scoring first this year, and is 52-3-4 when it has done so in MLS regular season contests since Cherundolo assumed the role in 2022.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels snap skid behind Kyle Hendricks’ gem against Tigers

• May 4, 2025

ANAHEIM — The way the Angels have been hitting, it seemed like it would take a shutout from their starting pitcher for them to snap a seven-game losing streak.

They nearly got one from an unlikely source, soft-throwing right-hander Kyle Hendricks allowing one run and four hits over 7⅔ innings and the Angels busting out for four runs in the sixth inning of a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

Hendricks gave up just two singles and faced one batter over the minimum through seven innings before making his only mistake, an elevated curveball that Spencer Torkelson belted for a solo homer in the eighth to trim the Angels lead to 5-1.

The former Capistrano Valley High star, who believed he was tipping pitches while going 0-3 with a 6.65 ERA in his first five starts, struck out three and walked none to earn his first win in an Angels uniform after signing a one-year, $2.5 million deal with his hometown team over the winter.

“It’s super special for the family, growing up here, coming to these ballgames – it means a lot getting this one,” Hendricks said. “I felt much better about the ball coming out, deception stuff, a couple of things we changed mechanically … it’s just a matter of execution and not tipping [pitches].”

Hendricks masterfully mixed his 79 mph changeup, 86 mph sinker, 72 mph curveball and a sprinkling of 87 mph fastballs to keep a Tigers team that had pounded the Angels for 19 runs and 27 hits in the first two games of the series off-balance. He did not throw one pitch faster than 88.3 mph.

“He was back-dooring pitches, he used his changeup, he got ahead of them with his breaking stuff, and he was able to recognize when he can shoot that 88 mph fastball,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “It looks like he’s throwing 98 mph when you know how to pitch, which he does, and things fall into place with his sequencing.”

Detroit put runners on second and third with one out off Angels left-hander Brock Burke in the top of the ninth when Washington summoned closer Kenley Jansen, who gave up six runs and six hits in the ninth inning of Friday night’s loss.

“I’m out there talking to Burke, I look up to get [Jansen] and he’s already there,” Washington said. “We told him if they got two on that he was coming into the game. You saw how badly he wanted it.”

Jansen got Riley Greene, who hit two homers in the ninth inning Friday night, to ground out to first base, a run scoring, and Colt Keith to line out to shortstop to end the game, notching his seventh save of the season and 454th of his career.

“You just gotta go back out there,” Jansen said. “We’re all gonna suck one day, and you have to be accountable when that happens. We had a great chance to win [Friday night] and I feel like I let my team down. But today was for me to pick up my teammates and help us get that win.”

The Tigers gift-wrapped the first run of the game for the Angels when right fielder Kerry Carpenter and Greene, the center fielder, collided on a Kyren Paris routine fly ball to the gap with two outs in the second inning.

The ball dropped for an error charged to Carpenter, allowing Travis d’Arnaud, who led off with a double and took third on Luis Rengifo’s groundout, to score for a 1-0 lead.

The Angels pushed the lead to 5-0 with a four-run sixth, a rally that began with singles by Nolan Schanuel and Jorge Soler off Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty, the former Westlake-Harvard High star who helped the Dodgers win the World Series last year.

Taylor Ward flied out to center, but d’Arnaud walked to load the bases, and Rengifo grounded a first-pitch curve into center field for a two-run single and a 3-1 lead.

Gustavo Campero struck out, but Paris, mired in a 2-for-40 slump in which he had struck out 23 times and walked once, roped a two-run single to left field to make it 5-1 and knock Flaherty out of the game.

“We needed somebody to come through in some situations, and Rengifo gave us the two-run single, and then Kyren got us another one,” Washington said after the Angels won for only the fifth time in 20 games. “We needed everything we got tonight. Everything.”

​ Orange County Register 

Clippers’ season ends with blowout loss to Nuggets in Game 7

• May 4, 2025

DENVER — The way the first-round series between the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets had gone, most expected the teams to produce a tight Game 7, if not another down-to-the-wire thriller.

After a pressure-cooker performance in Game 6 at the Intuit Dome extended the series to the limit, the Clippers came up well short on Saturday at Ball Arena, losing 120-101 in a game that was far more lopsided than the final score indicated.

The Nuggets used a dominant second quarter to turn a five-point deficit into an 11-point halftime lead then opened the third quarter with a 17-3 run to seize control of the game for good. Denver outscored the Clippers 72-40 in the middle two quarters and cruised across the finish line.

“I think we could have put up a better effort for sure,” Clippers star Kawhi Leonard said. “At the time, I don’t think this (Nuggets) team was 30 points better than us. We’ve seen it throughout the first six games of the series. But I’ve got to give them credit, they came out with the ball, ran hard in transition, got easy points and they made shots.”

The imported “Wall” of 125 Clippers fans, whose game tickets and airfare were funded by team owner Steve Ballmer to try to recreate a condensed version of the group of superfans that packs the section behind one of the baskets at the Intuit Dome, could not bar entry to the Nuggets’ supporting cast during the decisive middle quarters.

Leonard started the second half with a 3-pointer to cut the Clippers’ deficit to 58-50, but Nikola Jokic hit a fallaway 16-footer to begin the onslaught. Aaron Gordon fed Christian Braun for a 3-pointer and then dunked to make it 65-50 and prompt a Clippers timeout.

James Harden missed a short jumper and Norman Powell had a turnover and a layup blocked, while the Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr. drained a pair of 3-pointers to send the Ball Arena crowd into a frenzy. Gordon tipped in a Jamal Murray miss to make it 75-50 with 8:12 left in the third quarter. Jokic converted a three-point play and Gordon dunked off a lob pass from Braun to give Denver a 28-point lead with 5:40 left in the third.

For much of the second half, the Clippers simply looked lost. At one point in the fourth quarter, they trailed by 35.

“We didn’t do a good job in transition defense. They got out in transition, and the steals they did have, they were pick-sixes. They were dunks and layups,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “Then when they found that offensive rhythm, it was hard to stop. I thought (Nuggets interim coach David Adelman) did a great job of just putting guys in position to be successful, and they picked us apart.”

Gordon had 22 points and Braun scored 21 to pace the Nuggets. Jokic finished two assists away from his fourth triple-double of the series (16 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists), but the three-time league MVP picked up his third, fourth and fifth fouls over a 48-second span late in the third and went to the bench. He played only a few minutes in the fourth quarter.

“Everybody got involved,” Lue said. “When you play into a good team like that and try to take the best player in the world out, he sets everything up for everybody else.”

Murray added 16 points, Porter had 15 points and six rebounds and former Clipper Russell Westbrook had 16 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals off the bench, playing a huge role in the second quarter.

The Clippers were seeded fifth in a tightly-packed Western Conference, but they went into the postseason as the hottest team in the league. A team that waited until early January for Leonard to make his season debut as he rehabbed his surgically repaired knee won 18 of its last 21 regular-season games with the two-time NBA Finals MVP looking as good as he had in years.

“Once (Leonard) got back and got to play like himself, I thought we really put together a strong run, you know, winning 18 out of 21 and get to this position. I thought that was really good,” said Lue, whose team has three first-round playoff exits and an 0-2 play-in showing since reaching the 2021 Western Conference finals. “… I’m proud of the guys and everybody in that locker room for what we were able to accomplish as far as staying together and winning 50 games. You hate to see them go out like this in a Game 7, so that’s very disappointing.”

Leonard, who had a team-high 22 points in Game 7, was nearly unguardable for stretches of this series, particularly in Game 2, when he scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting.

Harden, who had 28 points in a bounce-back performance in Game 6, went cold in the finale. He was held to seven points on 2-of-8 shooting (1 for 4 from 3-point shooting), though he added 13 assists.

Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 12 off the bench and Derrick Jones Jr. also had 12, but Clippers center Ivica Zubac had his quietest scoring game of the series with 10 points and 14 rebounds. Norman Powell had nine points on 4-of-11 shooting (0 for 3 from 3-point range), and Kobe Brown added 13 points off the bench.

The Nuggets began celebrating early in the fourth quarter when Westbrook willingly received a technical foul for hanging on the rim and swinging back and forth after his steal and dunk put Denver up 107-76.

The Clippers’ reserves cut a 35-point deficit into the teens late in the fourth, but the Nuggets’ lead was too big to overcome and their 19-point win was their biggest in a Game 7 in franchise history.

The fourth-seeded Nuggets advance to take on top-seeded Oklahoma City, which swept eighth-seeded Memphis in the first round and has had a week off. That series begins Monday night in OKC.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Atitlan, Hector Berrios get John Shirreffs a win at Santa Anita

• May 4, 2025

ARCADIA — Trainer John Shirreffs won a big race Saturday, just not the biggest race.

In the Kentucky Derby, Shirreffs’ 3-year-old Baeza ran well but settled for a close third behind winner Sovereignty and favorite Journalism as the place and show horses gave California fans a thrill.

Meanwhile, at Santa Anita, Shirreffs’ 4-year-old Atitlan gave the barn a victory, prevailing in a three-way photo finish in the Charles Whittingham Stakes in front of a Derby Day crowd of 15,122.

Does it count as a consolation prize when the $120,000 winner’s purse for the $200,000, Grade I Whittingham is a fraction of the $500,000 third-place purse for the $5 million, Grade I Kentucky Derby? Whether it does or not, the associates of Shirreffs and Atitlan owner John M.B. O’Connor in the winner’s circle looked thrilled. And Atitlan jockey Hector Berrios was smiling.

“This horse has been getting very confident,” Berrios told a track TV interviewer.

Atitlan (who paid $3.20) has produced both of Shirreffs’ three graded-stakes victories in 2025 and two of Berrios’ three.

The son of The Factor now has four wins in 10 starts, including a 1½-length win in the Grade II Twilight Derby last October at Santa Anita.

He was more impressive in his last race, in March, when he won by two widening lengths in the Grade III San Luis Rey Stakes at 1½ miles on turf and posted career-best speed figures.

In Saturday’s 1¼-mile race, starting on Santa Anita’s turf hillside – about 25 minutes before the Derby started – Atitlan and Berrios needed every step of that distance to get up on the outside and win by a head over 15-1 Packs a Wahlop and rider Reylu Gutierrez and a neck over 14-1 Dicey Mo Charra and Armando Ayuso.

After dropping back to fourth in the six-horse field, as many as seven lengths behind leaders Balladeer and jockey Kent Desormeaux, Berrios sensed that the pacesetter might be having it too easy, and began to advance going into the far turn.

“He needed more pace, so I tried to be closer to the front and made an earlier move,” Berrios said on TV. “He really fought on strong in the stretch.”

Berrios told writers: “When I asked him, he didn’t respond too much.”

But they got it done.

At Churchill Downs, Santa Anita-based horses and horsemen had a lucrative day even if the Kentucky Derby itself just eluded Michael McCarthy’s Journalism, a 3-1 favorite, and Shirreffs’ Baeza, sent off at 13-1, and Bob Baffert’s early leader Citizen Bull faded to 15th at 13-1.

Richard Mandella’s Kopion ($7.48) and jockey Kazushi Kimura were impressive winners in the $1 million, Grade I Derby City Distaff, beating Baffert’s Hope Rode by three lengths.

Californians running second and third were a theme. Baffert’s Nysos ran well in his return from a layoff but finished in a dead heat for second behind Mindframe in the $1 million, Grade I Churchill Downs Stakes. Baffert’s Madaket Road and Gaming chased loose leader Macho Music in the $600,000, Grade II Pat Day Mile. Brian Koriner’s Boss Sully couldn’t hold off Think Big while Phil D’Amato’s Unconquerable Keen rallied for third in the $600,000, Grade II Twin Spires Turf Sprint.

D’Amato’s Gold Phoenix continued to earn pieces of purses in major races, getting fourth at 12-1 in the $1 million, Grade I Turf Classic.

Tomorrow is another day, especially for Santa Anita bettors, who can look forward to a two-day carryover in the pick-six, putting $77,347 into the Sunday pool on races 5-10.

​ Orange County Register 

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava brings ‘presence’ to spring showcase

• May 4, 2025

PASADENA — Nico Iamaleava was only on the Rose Bowl Stadium’s turf for a few minutes before UCLA football’s spring showcase on Saturday afternoon, but he snagged plenty of attention.

The Tennessee transfer quarterback stood with his family, including brother Madden Iamaleava, and spoke with UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster before going into the team tunnel just before the showcase began. He waved to the crowd, which occasionally shouted his name, as he exited.

“You can tell he has presence,” Foster told reporters after the showcase. “He commands attention being 6-foot-6. He’s a huge guy. And he’s not somebody that’s just seeking that attention — he has a poise to him that is just comforting.”

Iamaleava is still enrolled at Tennessee but will start meeting with UCLA coaches virtually after the Tennessee semester ends. The last day of final exams at the school is May 15, according to its online academic calendar.

Players have already had the opportunity to meet with their new quarterback, and offensive lineman Julian Armella said that the Iamaleava family remembered him from high school football.

Armella and linebacker Isaiah Chisom spoke with reporters after the spring showcase, marking the first time that players were available to media since before Iamaleava’s transfer was made official — a time when there was unrelenting attention on the UCLA football program.

“It’s college football and college sports,” Armella said. “You’re going to have buzzing from here and there, and this and that and the other. But at the end of the day, it’s a production- and results-based business.

“Regardless of him coming or Joey (Aguilar) leaving and all that stuff — as a team, we’ve done a really good job of honing in this spring and coming together as a team and working together to get to our end goal, which is to win games.”

Armella said he had recently seen Aguilar, UCLA’s former quarterback who transferred to Tennessee, on campus between classes. Both Armella and Chisom, who are transfers themselves, were understanding about Aguilar’s decision to transfer.

“The transfer portal stuff, it can happen as fast or as slow as you want it to happen,” Chisom said. “I wish him the best. There’s no hard feelings. He made the decision that is going to uprise his career, and, I mean, we made decisions to move forward in our career.”

Luke Duncan took repetitions at quarterback with the first and second team offenses on Saturday at the showcase. His best passes of the day included a 15-yard strike to Kwazi Gilmer and passes of roughly 20 yards to Mikey Matthews, Jaedon Wilson and Ezavier Staples during 11-on-11 drills.

The coaching staff had asked him to take the extra repetitions, according to Foster, and Duncan was eager for the work.

“Luke has done a very good job of being able to assess the offense as the captain as well as take leadership and be able to assert himself in the quarterback room,” Armella said. “To be a quarterback, you need to be vocal, you need to give everybody their calls. You can’t play quarterback with any type of hesitation, and I think he’s done a really good job of embracing his role.”

Battle for No. 9

Two linebackers have worn jersey No. 9 throughout spring practice: Chisom and Jalen Woods.

“Being an offensive lineman and trying to ID a backer (when there’s) nine, nine and six – it can get a little confusing,” Armella said.

Only one will wear the No. 9 jersey when the season starts, and the determining factor will be who starts at the position. Foster said that he will also take intangibles like being on time, watching film and cheering on teammates into consideration.

“Grades play into it,” he said. “It’s not just everything that’s on the field. I’m looking for just somebody that totally embodies our pillars, and those are going to be the guys that end up getting their jerseys.”

Injury update

Receiver Carter Shaw participated in all aspects of practice except for 11-on-11 team periods after missing the last six games of the fall season and all of spring practice due to injury.

Defensive linemen Nico Davillier and Keanu Williams were each on the sidelines in street clothing. Offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio also did not practice on Saturday. Foster said that there were no injuries of concern and that they were held out to get other players more repetitions.

​ Orange County Register