HARD NOT TO LOVE, the one-eyed 3-year-old filly foaled at Anderson Farms in St. Thomas, Ontario is 6 to 1 in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. The daughter of Hard Spun – Loving Vindication by Vindication has won three of four career races and tries her second stakes race off an October layoff for trainer John Shirreffs.
The half sister to Horse of the Year Wonder Gadot’s competition includes 9 to 5 morning line favourite Bellafina, who was second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & mare Sprint in November at Santa Anita.
Opening day of the Santa Anita winter meeting was re-scheduled from Dec. 26, its traditional opening, because of heavy rain. The embattled track has been carefully maintaining the dirt track, implemented new safety features and will consider cancelling races if the rack is wet.
Victor Ryan at Horse Racing Nation outlines the issues facing Santa Anita as it opens its 103 day meeting Saturday.
Among the most noteworthy additions to Santa Anita is new, cutting-edge medical equipment for the backstretch equine hospital. Earlier this month, Santa Anita unveiled a standing PET scanner designed to aid in the diagnosis of pre-existing conditions. Specifically, the PET scan machine provides high-resolution, 3-D images that can precisely locate and evaluate potential problem areas in the fetlock joint.
An array of horses on the Santa Anita backstretch will also have images taken with the PET scan machine in order to build a database for further study. The Stronach Group said it spent $500,000 for the machine.
Read more –
https://www.horseracingnation.com/news/4_questions_facing_Santa_Anita_Park_ahead_of_a_new_meet_123#
Saturday, Santa Anita, post time: 5:00 p.m. EST
LA BREA S.-GI, $300,000, 3yo, f, 7f
PP HORSE SIRE OWNER TRAINER JOCKEY ML
1 First Star First Dude Albert and Kathleen Mattivi, LLC Ellis Van Dyke 120
2 Del Mar May Jimmy Creed Calvin Nguyen Baltas Bravo 120
3 Free Cover Congrats ERJ Racing, LLC Lerner Cedillo 120
4 Stirred Shakin It Up Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners McCarthy Franco 120
5 Bellafina Quality Road Kaleem Shah, Inc., Magnier, Mrs. John, Tabor, Callaghan Prat 122
6 Bell’s the One Majesticperfection Lothenbach Stables, Inc. Pessin Castellano 122
7 Hard Not to Love Hard Spun Mercedes Stables LLC, West Point Thoroughbreds, Dilworth, Scott, Ingordo, Dorothy, Ingordo, David
and Mooney, F. Steve Shirreffs Smith 120
8 Motion Emotion Take Charge Indy Abbondanza Racing, LLC, Mark DeDomenico LLC Baltas Gutierrez 120
and Medallion Racing
9 Mother Mother Pioneerof the Nile Old Bones Racing Stable, LLC, Hall, Barry, Lipman, Baffert Rosario 120
Barry and Mathiesen, Mark
Breeders: 1-Catherine Ann Perez &Richard Allan Heysek, 2-T/C Stable, LLC, 3-SF Bloodstock, 4-Darrell Curry, 5-JSM Equine, LLC., 6-Bret Jones,
7-Anderson Farms Ont. Inc., 8-WinStar Farm, LLC, 9-T. F. VanMeter
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