They’re Lining Up to Take On Tiznow

Despite the presence of 2000 horse of the year Tiznow, 13 horses--the largest field in 15 years--have been entered for Saturday’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap.

“A lot of people think that Tiznow won’t be at his best,” said trainer Bob Baffert, who entered Wooden Phone and Tribunal. “We may all be crazy, because I still think Tiznow is the horse to beat. If he’s at his best, we’re all in trouble.”

Baffert, who won the Big ‘Cap last year with General Challenge, beat Tiznow by two lengths with Wooden Phone in the Strub Stakes on Feb. 3, but Saturday’s race, at 1 1/4 miles, is an eighth of a mile longer. Tiznow, who will run with two cracks on his right front hoof that have been wired and screwed together and patched, is the 8-5 favorite on linemaker Jeff Tufts’ morning line. Wooden Phone is next at 5-1.

This is the biggest Big ‘Cap turnout since 1986, when Greinton defeated 12 rivals. In the early years of the stake, big fields were common, but in the 1990s the Big ‘Cap averaged under nine horses a year. Only eight ran last year. A record 23 horses ran in 1946, when War Knight won.

Baffert is in a position to become only the fourth trainer to the win the Big ‘Cap in consecutive years with different horses. Tom Smith won with Kayak II and Seabiscuit in 1939-40; Charlie Whittingham saddled Lord At War to win in 1985 and repeated with Greinton the next year; and Richard Mandella doubled up in 1997-98, first with Siphon and then with Malek. Ron McAnally’s successive wins in 1981-82 were both with John Henry.

A week after the Strub, Baffert lost seven days of training with Wooden Phone, who caught a virus.

“I don’t know how the [lost time] will affect him,” Baffert said. “I’d feel better if the race was a mile and an eighth instead of a mile and a quarter.”

Horse Racing Notes

Post time for the Santa Anita Handicap is 4:12 p.m. Post time for the first race Saturday is noon. . . . Other stakes on the card are the $200,000 San Rafael for 3-year-olds at a mile and the $400,000 Frank E. Kilroe Mile for older horses on the grass. . . . Early Flyer, winner of the San Vicente, and Palmeiro, second to Millennium Wind in the Santa Catalina, are running in the San Rafael. This is the field: Palmeiro, Piccolo Player, Media Mogul, Daytime Lover, Early Flyer, Crafty C.T., Learing At Kathy, Victory Roar, Wild And Wise and Swordfish. . . . The grass race, named in honor of the late Jimmy Kilroe, longtime racing secretary and vice president for racing at Santa Anita, used to be the Arcadia Handicap. High weight at 121 pounds is Mash One, who hasn’t run since Oct. 8, when he won the Clement L. Hirsch off a year’s layoff. Sardaukar will break from the inside post, and outside him in the gate will be Hollycombe, Road To Slew, Mash One, Val Royal, Hawksley Hill, Fateful Dream, Yaralino, Deploy Venture, Exchange Rate and Otavalo.

Street Cry, third behind Macho Uno and Point Given in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, made his debut as a 3-year-old Thursday night and won the $250,000 United Arab Emirates 2,000 Guineas at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai. Second at a distance of about a mile was Noverre, Street Cry’s stablemate, who was 11th in the Breeders’ Cup. Frankie Dettori rode the Irish-bred Street Cry. Trained last year by former Bob Baffert assistant Eoin Harty, Street Cry ran second to his stablemate, Flame Thrower, in both the Del Mar Futurity and the Norfolk at Santa Anita. Thursday marked Street Cry’s first start for Saeed bin Suroor, lead trainer for Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing. Street Cry’s next start will be March 24 in the $2-million U.A.E. Derby, a race that might set him up for the Kentucky Derby on May 5. . . . A report from Dubai said that Big Jag, preparing for the $2-million Dubai Golden Shaheen Stakes on March 24, was injured and has been retired. Big Jag, an 8-year-old gelding who won 13 of 30 starts and earned $1.8 million, ran second to Men’s Exclusive on Jan. 28 in the Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita.