Santa Anita Recap: Sky Kingdom, Tapizar, Reneesgotzip, Ellafitz, and Norvsky

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     It was another great week of racing at Santa Anita. There were derby hopefuls winning with ease, breeders cup hopefuls returning to form, fillies preparing for possible appearances in May, the venerable Mr. Baffert winning a stakes race, and turf performers plying their trade on the grass. In fact, one of Mr. Bafferts derby hopefuls, Sky Kingdom as IC1, won an allowance race on Thursday with the greatest of ease. After running 4th by just a couple of lengths to another Baffert derby hopeful, Liaison, in the G1 Cash Call Futurity, Sky Kingdom took over at the top of the lane under a hand ride and drew off impressively, albeit against a very soft field. The son of Empire Maker stamped himself as a derby contender in May simply by the way he won. There was no whip used by jockey Martin Garcia as he galloped home in this visually impressive performance.

      On Saturday in the G2 San Fernando stakes, Tapizar, trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by jockey Corey Nakatani, took the early lead and easily won the featured race. After disappointing in the G1 breeders cup dirt mile last November, the 4 year old colt out of Tapit showed why he could be a force as the year progresses. Sunday brought what could have been a glimpse at one of the favorites in the G1 Kentucky Oaks, which will be run later this year in May, when Reneesgotzip, trained by Peter Miller, won the second start of her early career to remain undefeated. Nakatani picked up his second graded stakes victory of the weekend, when this 3 year old daughter of City Zip won impressively. She looks like a filly who could improve and get the distance later this year.

      Ellafitz, who  had won the G2 Bayakoa in her previous start, won again when she captured the Paseana stakes on Sunday. The amazing thing about this victory was the fact that she did not go as the favorite for Mr. Baffert and paid over $7 to win as IC1. What a gift! Monday we saw Norvsky, under jockey Rafael Bejarano, win the G2 San Gabriel at 1 1/8 miles on the turf for trainer Donald Warren, who is rapidly developing into a top notch turf conditioner. In fact, later that night, his trainee Acclamation, ran second in the horse of the year honors to Havre de Grace at the annual Eclipse awards for top horses, trainers, and jockeys. Congratulations to all of the horses and connections who were named winners on Monday.

      The IC selections had a great week with IC1 winning 14 of the 43 races last week, for a solid 33% winning percentage. My favorite IC story was from the 9th on Sunday when the order of finish was IC1 to IC2 to IC3 paying $105 for the straight trifecta! The IC system never ceases to amaze me.