Bet on the Santa Anita Oaks

Bet on the Santa Anita Oaks

The Santa Anita Oaks is a Grade 1 race for three year-old fillies held in early April at Santa Anita Park.  A marquee event currently offered for a purse of $300,000, the Santa Anita Oaks is commonly used as a prep race for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.  Run at a mile and one sixteenth on dirt, the Santa Anita Oaks has been in existence since 1935 when it was introduced as a race for two year-olds. The race was once known as the Santa Susana, but has kept its current name since 1986.

Santa Anita Oaks Racebooks

Online racebooks have evolved to accommodate the needs of the modern horse player.  In addition to the ease and convenience of being able to play the races from home or while on the go, the competitive market of online wagering means great value for players.  From sign-up bonuses to daily rebates and rewards, online racebooks enhance betting value for horse players. 

Santa Anita Oaks Betting Odds

Bovada, one of the leading online racebooks, offers tremendous 24-hour customer service and provides weekly rebates for horse players on every wager – win or lose.  With bonuses of 3% on all win, place, or show wagers and 5% on all exotic wagers, Bovada puts money back into the pockets of its players.  Bovada also offers sign-up bonuses and fixed-odds betting opportunities that help players “lock-in” preferential odds as opposed to being subjected to the whims of the pari-mutuel pool. With action from over 60 of the nation’s top tracks and selected international tracks, Bovada has one of the best racebooks around. 

2015 Santa Anita Oaks Contenders

The 2015 Santa Anita Oaks featured a pair of standouts in Luminance and Stellar Wind. Represented by leading trainers Bob Baffert and John Sadler respectively, bettors zeroed in on the two fillies, sending Luminance to post at 7/2 and Stellar Wind even money. When the gates opened Luminance, sent to post at 7/2, found a comfortable tracking position while Stellar Wind (even money) loped behind the rest of the field in last. Luminance seized the lead after a half in 46.34 just as Stellar Wind was beginning to make up significant ground. As the two horses reaching the final turn, Stellar Wind had worked her way up to second, a length and a half behind her main rival. Under steady urging by jockey Victor Espinoza, Stellar Wind seized command in the stretch, galloping away from Luminance powerfully to win by over 5 lengths. The victory was Stellar Wind’s third in four starts and second consecutive stakes tally. She would go on to finish fourth in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

2015 Order of Finish:  Win  Place  Show

1st: Stellar Wind            $4.40 $3.80 $2.40

2nd: Luminance                         $4.00 $3.00

3rd: Wild At Heart                                $3.60

Also Ran: Curlin’s Fox, Singing Kitty, Glory, Light the City; Scratched: She’s a Big Winner

Did you know?

The Santa Anita Oaks has produced several winners of notoriety over the years – a trend that has continued in the new millennium with Beholder winning the 2013 Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff.  In 2009, Stardom Bound won the Santa Anita Oaks a year removed from winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and being named Two Year-Old Filly of the Year at the Eclipse Awards. In 2007, superstar filly Rags to Riches won the Santa Anita Oaks before winning the Kentucky Oaks and later becoming only the third filly ever to win the Belmont Stakes and the first since Tanya in 1905. 1988 Santa Anita Oaks hero Winning Colors accomplished similar heroics winning the Kentucky Derby in her next race.  Winning Colors also ran second by a miniscule margin in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff to undefeated champion Personal Ensign.   

Other noteworthy Santa Anita Oaks champions include Sharp Cat (1997), Serena’s Cat (1995), Eliza (1993), and Lite Light (1991). Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has won the Santa Anita Oaks a record eight times, twice as many wins as fellow Hall of Famer Charles Whittingham in second.