Baze, Talamo to serve suspensions early in meet

If youngsters Michael Baze and Joe Talamo are going to finish one-two in the jockey standings at the Oak Tree meet that opens today at Santa Anita, they’re going to have to do it coming from behind.

Baze, 20, and Talamo, 17, finished one-two at both the recent Hollywood Park and Del Mar meets. But they will be hard-pressed to do so at the six-week Oak Tree meet.

Baze will serve two three-day suspensions beginning Saturday, his agent, Nick Cosato, said Tuesday. The suspensions resulted from interference penalties incurred near the end of the Del Mar meet.

Talamo, hit with a three-day suspension for interference at Del Mar, will serve it Friday through Sunday, agent Ronnie Ebanks said.

Although both jockeys will be able to ride in stakes races while serving their suspensions, the fact they’ll have so few mounts during that time puts them at a distinct disadvantage in the jockey race.

That could open the door for another youngster, Martin Garcia, a native of Veracruz, Mexico, who turns 23 on Oct. 23. Garcia closed with a rush at Del Mar, winning 26 races to finish fifth in the jockey standings. Garcia will be aboard 15-1 longshot Stylish Wildcat in today’s Grade III $100,000 Sen. Ken Maddy Handicap, a turf race.

Victor Espinoza, who finished third in the Del Mar jockey standings, will ride Attima, the morning-line 3-1 favorite among 14 entrants in the Maddy. But this will be Attima’s first start in nearly eight months. The 4-year-old filly bled through the nose in her last race, said trainer Julio Canani, referring to the Grade II Buena Vista Handicap at Santa Anita on Feb. 19. Canani said Attima has been training well, so he decided to run her in the Maddy at 6 1/2 furlongs on Santa Anita’s downhill turf course.

Another entrant in the Maddy drawing some attention is Dancing Edie, who will be ridden by Corey Nakatani. The 5-year-old mare will carry high weight of 122 pounds, but she has not raced at a sprint distance in more than two years.

Six of the nine races on today’s card, with a post time of 1 p.m., will be run on Santa Anita’s new synthetic Cushion Track. Jockeys and exercise riders who have experienced the track during morning workouts have been raving about it.

But the track, which opened for training Sept. 4, had its first casualty Monday when top 2-year-old Drill Down shattered his left cannon bone during a morning workout and later was euthanized.

There also was a fatality at Hollywood Park on Sunday. Latin Rhythms, the winner of the El Cajon Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 31, suffered a sesamoid bone fracture at the end of a workout and was euthanized.

But the news is mostly good regarding the Oak Tree meet. For one thing, Santa Anita’s owner, Frank Stronach, and the Oak Tree Racing Assn. appear to have made peace. The two entities recently agreed on a lease extension through 2016.

Another positive is Oak Tree’s schedule, particularly early in the meet. Eight graded races with bearing on the Breeders’ Cup at New Jersey’s Monmouth Park on Oct. 26-27 will be run during the first two weeks.

Coming up Saturday is the Grade I Yellow Ribbon Stakes, featuring unbeaten filly Noshiba’s Key, with Talamo on board, and two other Grade I stakes, the Goodwood and the Oak Leaf. Sunday’s card features the Norfolk Stakes.

“We’re running seven Grade I races in six weeks and 13 graded races overall,” said Sherwood Chillingworth, Oak Tree’s executive vice president. “I don’t think there’s a track in the U.S. that can present as much quality racing in such a short period of time.”

To commemorate the first day of racing on the new track today, the first 15,000 fans will receive a souvenir paperweight packed with the dirt from the historic old track.

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larry.stewart@latimes.com