By DRF.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (Feb. 28, 2014) – The first Santa Anita spring-summer meeting from April 25 to June 29 will look very similar to the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting it replaces even though some of the race names have been changed.
The list of 34 stakes includes six Grade 1 races with familiar names such as the Gamely Stakes, American Oaks, Vanity Stakes, Shoemaker Mile, and Triple Bend Stakes. The Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup has been renamed the Gold Cup at Santa Anita, and will be run on June 28, the final Saturday of the meeting.
Hollywood Park closed for development after its autumn meeting in December.
Ten other stakes have been renamed – the Last Tycoon Stakes was the Inglewood, the Spring Fever was formerly the B. Thoughtful, the Desert Code had been run as the Harry Henson, the Precisionist Stakes was the Mervyn LeRoy, the Adoration Stakes was the Marjorie Everett Stakes, the Angels Flight Stakes was the Railbird, the Singletary Stakes was the Tsunami Slew, the Mizdirection Stakes was formerly the Great Lady M, the Summertime Oaks was previously the Hollywood Oaks, and the Santa Anita Juvenile was the Hollywood Juvenile.
The word Hollywood no longer appears in the name of a stakes at the spring-summer meeting.
One famous Santa Anita race, the $200,000 San Juan Capistrano Stakes over about 1 3/4 miles on turf, has been moved from its previous date at the end of the winter-spring meeting in April to the final day of the new meet, June 29.
The purse of the San Juan Capistrano was increased $50,000. Eight other stakes were raised $50,000 to $100,000. The Shoemaker Mile was worth $300,000 in 2013 and is worth $400,000 this year.
The purses of six races were reduced from $25,000 to $50,000. The Snow Chief Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds has been reduced $50,000, to $200,000, and will be run on turf as part of a day of stakes for statebreds on April 26.
Santa Anita racing secretary Rick Hamerle said additional stakes will be added to the schedule as overnight stakes.
Five stakes formerly run at Hollywood Park are not part of the schedule. The A Gleam Handicap, Swaps Stakes, Willard Proctor Stakes, and Cinderella Stakes will be renamed and run at the Los Alamitos July Thoroughbred meeting. The Sunset Handicap on turf, formerly run over 1 1/2 miles in July, has not been scheduled.