Turf Stakes Jeopardized by Rain

Even though this week’s storm systems appear to have cleared out, all the rain that already has pummeled Santa Anita’s turf course has jeopardized the track’s grass stakes Sunday and Monday.

All grass racing was moved to the dirt Friday, and today’s three turf races have been switched to the main track. The features the rest of the long weekend--the $100,000 Sensational Star Handicap on Sunday and Monday’s $150,000 San Gorgonio Handicap--also could become dirt races.

With Spinelessjellyfish, last year’s winner, not entered in the Sensational Star, the high weights, at 116 pounds apiece, are Echo Eddie and The Morris Monroe. Turkish Prize, who won the second running of the downhill, 6 1/2-furlong stake in 1999, is winless in nine starts since then and will carry 115 pounds.

Echo Eddie, who has won five of 10 starts, won going downhill at Santa Anita in October. Others entered are Flying Rudolph, Champ’s Star, Macward, Mccordnskuba and Unlimited Value.

The San Gorgonio is 1 1/8 miles for fillies and mares. Feverish, a stakes winner on dirt at Hollywood Park in her last start, is a probable and might run regardless of whether the race stays on grass.

Both of today’s stakes--the San Fernando Breeders’ Cup for 4-year-olds and the San Miguel for 3-year-olds--are on dirt. Sticking to his plan, trainer Jay Robbins said Friday that he would huddle with jockey Chris McCarron today before deciding whether to run Tiznow in the San Fernando. Tiznow, who hasn’t run since his upset victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November, would be a heavy favorite.

“I said the other day that my horse had no experience on an off track, but I was mistaken,” Robbins said. “I forgot that about four days before he left for Kentucky and the Breeders’ Cup, he had a work in the slop here. He loved it, and he’s bred to handle off tracks.”

Ten other horses are entered, some of their trainers hoping that Tiznow might not run. Without Tiznow, the favorite probably would be Wooden Phone, a 4-year-old gelding trained by Bob Baffert. Wooden Phone, making his first stakes start, ran third, behind Dixie Union and Caller One, in the Malibu on Dec. 26. The Malibu and the San Fernando are the first two legs in the series that concludes with the Strub Stakes on Feb. 3. Robbins would like to use today’s race as Tiznow’s prep for the Strub.

In the San Miguel, Da Breeze will try to move up from his maiden win at Hollywood Park on Dec. 16. That was the first start for the gelding trained by Leonard Duncan.

Also running in the San Miguel is Lasersport, who won two races in Kentucky by 16 1/4 lengths last year before a change of ownership brought him to trainer Darrell Vienna’s barn at Santa Anita.

Notes

Kent Desormeaux, riding Weatherbug to victory in Friday’s feature, racked up the 3,999th victory of his career. The race was switched from grass to dirt, the surface that gave the 5-year-old gelding his only win. Weatherbug had won only one of 26 starts overall and was winless in all seven turf starts. . . . Hollywood Park officials dispute Frank Stronach’s recent statement that his horses have suffered more breakdowns at Hollywood than at Santa Anita, which he owns. According to Hollywood Park records, Stronach--and in some cases his partners--ran 17 horses that started 34 times at the track’s two meets last year. The group had seven wins, three seconds and five thirds, with no breakdowns. Hollywood records show that one Stronach horse, Winging West, has resumed training after suffering a minor injury on Dec. 16. . . . Jockey Shane Sellers underwent knee surgery on Wednesday in Lexington, Ky., and while there is a chance that he’ll resume riding by August, there’s also a possibility that his career could be over. Sellers, who was injured in a post-parade accident at the New Orleans Fair Grounds on Dec. 21, ranked third nationally last year, riding horses that earned $14.8 million.