Gold Cup features Game On Dude at Santa Anita

The final weekend of racing for Santa Anita’s spring meeting features the Grade I, $500,000 Gold Cup on Saturday, with 7-year-old Game On Dude trying to win for the third time in a race that was previously run at Hollywood Park.

With two Hall of Famers behind him in trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Mike Smith, Game On Dude is expected to be favored in the 1 1/4-mile race that will be run as the eighth race on a 10-race card.

The Gold Cup was won at Hollywood Park by such legendary horses as Seabiscuit (1938), Swaps (1956), Round Table (1957), Native Diver (1965, ‘66, ‘67), Ack Ack (1971), Affirmed (1979) and Lava Man (2005, ‘06, ‘07).

Game On Dude has more than $6.4 million in career earnings. A field of seven is likely.

Also on the card is the Grade I, $300,000 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs and the Grade II, $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes at one mile on the turf.

Jockey Joe Talamo is on the verge of winning the spring riding title and Doug O’Neill has the lead in the trainer standings.

After Sunday’s final day of racing, Los Alamitos will hold an eight-day thoroughbred meeting beginning Thursday on its new mile oval.