From Santa Anita Publicity
ARCADIA, Calif. (May 3, 2026)—After being passed briefly for the lead in mid-stretch by 13-1 longshot Cailin Dana, California-bred Hey Jessie battled back gamely under Emisael Jaramillo to prevail over that rival in the $100,000 Santa Barbara Stakes for fillies and mares going 1 ½ miles on turf at Santa Anita.
Hey Jessie (5-2) bested Cailin Dana by a half-length on the wire for her first stakes victory against open company. Trained by Sean McCarthy for owner-breeder Sayjay Racing, Hey Jessie’s only other stakes win came in the Soviet Problem Stakes for statebreds on dirt at Los Alamitos in 2024. Prior to the Santa Barbara, the 4-year-old gray filly by Grazen was sixth in the GIII Santa Ana going 1 ¼ miles on March 15 at Santa Anita.
Jaramillo was riding Hey Jessie for the first time. He noted the winning move likely came when the field was on the backstretch.
As 4-5 favorite Resolve was racing alone on the lead at a moderate pace, Jaramillo decided to go ahead and engage that rival with Hey Jessie. That pair raced together until the top of the stretch when Hey Jessie finally got the best of Resolve. With that foe accounted for, Hey Jessie’s new threat was Cailin Dana rallying on the outside under Armando Ayuso. Cailin Dana did manage to get a nose in front approaching the sixteenth pole but was unable to finish the job as Hey Jessie came back for the breakthrough victory. Finishing three lengths back of the winner in third was Ulysses Rose (7-2).
“McCarthy told me after I worked the horse in the morning, ‘Emisael, maybe in this race go early. There is no pace. No speed,” said Jaramillo. “I decided at the five-furlong pole to go after the leader.”
Jaramillo, who is spending his first season riding at Santa Anita, also won Saturday’s GII Charles Whittingham Stakes aboard Mondego for trainer Michael McCarthy.
Hey Jessie won in a time of 2:29.0 following fractions of 24.11, 48.30, 1:13.10, 1:38.49 and 2:03.08 for 1 ¼ miles.
“Emisael Jaramillo did a fantastic job,” McCarthy said. “Left there nicely and got into a nice rhythm. Probably the move of the race was at the five and a half when he decided that, hey she’s walking, the favorite is up there cruising too slow. He eased up there. He didn’t gas her up there. She kind of took him there.
“It was dogfight from the quarter pole home, and I didn’t know if we would be able to do it or not. But she just dug in and showed all the heart she has and got the job done.”
Hey Jessie improved to 12: 4-1-0 with nearly $250,000 in earnings. For McCarthy, who’s operated a small stable in California since the early 1990s, the win was the 200th of his career.
“We have always been a small outfit, carried 12 to 16 horses,” McCarthy said. “So to knock out 200 we are doing it the hard way. It happened and we are really appreciative of it, especially here at Santa Anita.”
Hey Jessie paid $7.00, $4.80 and $3.40. Cailin Dana, trained by Neil Drysdale, returned $9.00 and $5.80. Ulysses Rose, ridden by Kazushi Kimura for trainer Michael McCarthy, paid $4.60.
Live racing resumes Friday at Santa Anita with an eight-race card starting at 1 p.m. PT.
SANTA BARBARA STAKES QUOTES
JOCKEY QUOTES
EMISAEL JARAMILLO, HEY JESSIE, WINNER: “McCarthy told me after I worked the horse in the morning, ‘Emisael, maybe in this race go early. There is no pace. No speed.’ I decided at the five-furlong pole to go after the leader.”
TRAINER QUOTES
SEAN MCCARTHY, HEY JESSIE WINNER: “Emisael Jaramillo did a fantastic job. Left there nicely and got into a nice rhythm. Probably the move of the race was at the five and a half when he decided that, hey she’s walking, and the favorite is up there cruising too slow. He eased up there. He didn’t gas her up there. She kind of took him there. I know, Kim my wife was saying, ‘Oh no don’t move.’ And I said, ‘Oh hon, it’s okay. She’s blowing him up there, she’s doing it on her own.’ So I was really happy to see that. It was dogfight from the quarter pole home, and I didn’t know if we would be able to do it or not. But she just dug in and showed all the heart she has and got the job done.”
200TH CAREER WIN: “I’m happy about it. We have always been a small outfit, carried 12 to 16 horses. So to knock out 200 we are doing it the hard way. It happened and we are really appreciative of it, especially here at Santa Anita.”