ARCADIA, Calif. (Apr. 2, 2025) – Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby card is filled with California-breds.
Illustrating the critical role state-breds play in the California Thoroughbred ecosystem, six of the 12 races carded on the track’s marquee day are exclusively for Cal-breds, totaling $512,000 in purses, with an average field size of 11.16. Cal-breds make up two-thirds of all Saturday entries at the Great Race Place.
That includes the pair of $125,000 stakes – the Echo Eddie for 3-year-olds and the Evening Jewel for 3-year-old fillies, which will be run as races 2 and 6, respectively.
In addition, race 1 is a $65,000 maiden special weight race for Cal-bred 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs on the turf; race 7 is a $65,000 maiden special weight race for Cal-bred 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs on the turf (a split of the oversubscribed race 1, with 12 entered in both); race 8 is a $65,000 maiden special weight race for Cal-bred 3-year-olds at six furlongs on dirt with 13 entered; and race 9 is a $67,000 Cal-bred allowance at about 6 ½ furlongs on the hillside turf course with 13 entered.
Cal-breds also appear in open races: two in race 3, an allowance optional claimer that includes graded-winning Northern California Yearling Sale graduate Freeport Joe; hard-knocking Safa in race 5, the Grade III Monrovia Stakes, presented by Ketel One; six in race 11, an allowance optional claimer; and one in race 12, an allowance optional claimer.
Combined, there are 77 Cal-breds among the total Saturday entries of 116, or 66.3 percent. The average field size for the card is 9.67, even with a five-horse field in the Santa Anita Derby and six-horse field in the Fasig-Tipton Santa Anita Oaks.