Santa Anita Fall Meet Opens This Weekend

Five graded-stakes races with big implications for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships to be held the first weekend of November highlight the opening Saturday of the Santa Anita fall meet. All five races are part of the ‘Win And You’re In’ series, in which the winning horse receives automatic fees-paid entry to a corresponding Breeders’ Cup Race. Two of those races are expected to produce contenders for the BC Classic and BC Ladies Classic, one for the Filly and Mare Turf, and the other two for Juvenile Breeders’ Cup events.

Awesome Again runners trying to punch their BC ticket

The action begins with the $250,000 Grade I Awesome Again Stakes, for three-year-olds and up, going 1 1/8 miles on the Santa Anita dirt. The field includes Mucho Macho Man, second in last year’s BC Classic, and Paynter, who most recently ran fifth in the Grade I Woodward at Saratoga.  That will be followed by the $250,000 Grade I Rodeo Drive Stakes, for three-year-old and up fillies and mares going 1 ¼ miles on the turf. Expected in the gate is Marketing Mix, the defending champion of last year’s race, who went on to finish second in the 2012 BC Filly and Mare Turf.

Beholder will make her claim as top distaff choice

Also on the card will be the $250,000 Grade I Frontrunner Stakes for two-year-olds running 1 1/16 miles on the dirt, and the $250,000 Chandelier Stakes for two-year-old fillies going the same distance also on the main track. Rounding out the featured races will be the $250,000 Grade I Zenyatta Stakes for three-year-old and up fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles, also on the dirt track. A solid favorite is expected to be Beholder, last year’s BC Juvenile Fillies winner, who has come back in 2013 to already claim two Grade I races.