From Santa Anita Publicity
ARCADIA, Calif. (Aug. 8, 2019) — A pair of stakes for Golden State Series eligible 2-year-olds are included in Santa Anita’s upcoming 23-day Autumn Meet, which opens Friday, Sept. 27 and will include the two-day Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Nov. 1 & 2.
Santa Anita will again offer a pair of $200,000 stakes for horses bred or sired in California–the Golden State Juvenile and the Golden State Juvenile Fillies, both at seven furlongs on Friday, Nov. 1.
In addition, Santa Anita’s Autumn Meet, which will conclude on Nov. 3, will offer fans and horsemen a full complement of world class racing highlighted by a total of 43 graded stakes–18 of which are Grade I events.
For the first time ever, a total of three graded stakes, two of them Grade I Breeders’ Cup “Win & You’re In” qualifying events, will be carded on opening day. In addition to the traditional meet opener, the Grade II, $200,000 Eddie D. Stakes, the Grade I, $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes, for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles and the Grade I, $300,000 Chandelier Stakes, for 2-year-old fillies at the same distance, will no doubt help to make Santa Anita the focus of the racing world on Sept. 27.
“We’re excited to get the meet started with these two outstanding Grade I races on opening day,” said Santa Anita Vice President, Racing and Racing Secretary Steve Lym. “It will get the ball rolling in a big way. In addition, the Eddie D. has been upgraded to a Grade II and we’ve also doubled the purse on it, so we’re expecting an outstanding field at five furlongs on turf, which will serve as prep for many horsemen who are hoping to run under the same conditions in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 2.
“The American Pharoah and the Chandelier are both traditional preps for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and we’re confident both of these races will attract big, competitive fields that our fans across the country will enjoy playing.”
(Lym also noted that while there will be no downhill turf sprints at 6 ½ furlongs, Santa Anita will for the first time, offer a limited number of 5 ½ furlong turf sprints, with the starting gate set on the main track. The utilization of the downhill course will be revisited in advance of the 2019-20 Winter Meeting).
Santa Anita will present five stakes on opening weekend, Sept. 28 & 29 and three of them, the Grade I, $300,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes and the Grade I, $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes on Sept. 28, and the Grade II, $200,000 Zenyatta Stakes on Sept. 29, will serve as Breeders’ Cup “Win & You’re In” qualifiers.
Additionally, the Grade II, $200,000 John Henry Turf Championship, for 3-year-olds and up at a mile and one quarter, and the $75,000 Unzip Me Stakes, for 3-year-old fillies at 5 ½ furlongs on turf, will also be run on Sept. 28, making day two a thoroughly compelling afternoon.
Santa Anita’s final 2019 Breeders’ Cup “Win & You’re In” qualifier, the Grade I, $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, will be run on Saturday, Oct. 5.