ARCADIA — Maybe it was the bright sun rising over the Santa Anita grandstand that made people squint as they watched horses working out in the days before the start of the track’s fall racing season Friday.
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Or maybe trainers and owners were straining their eyes to try to spot a Breeders’ Cup contender or two among the horses preparing for this weekend’s crowded schedule of pivotal stakes.
The six-week meet begins in a trot with an eight-race card featuring an allowance-level turf mile, and then breaks into a gallop with seven graded stakes Saturday and Sunday, testing mostly older horses at long and short distances on both dirt and turf. A half-dozen more graded stakes are on the way the following weekend, spotlighting 2-year-old prospects. Important in their own right, the stakes double as preps for the Breeders’ Cup races Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.
The Goodwood Stakes, which includes 2025 winner Nevada Beach and Hollywood Gold Cup winner Forged Steel, is featured Saturday and is ostensibly the big race of the weekend. But the race most likely to send one or more horses to the Breeders’ Cup is on Sunday.
Here are horses to watch. Races are listed in the order they’ll be run.
SATURDAY
Race 3: $200,000, Grade II City of Hope Mile, 3-year-olds and up, 1 mile on turf
The consistent 7-year-old El Potente (Hector Berrios riding Saturday) was favored in the Del Mar Mile but suffered from drawing post 11 and missed by a head and neck to King of Gosford (Umberto Rispoli) and Detain (Juan Hernandez). Moving to post 2 this time can turn the tables.
This is a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” race, granting the winner a free entry in the Mile as long as he’s nominated. El Potente isn’t nominated, so owner Mike Way would have to pay a six-figure fee to run.
“God willing, we have that decision to make,” said Dan Blacker, who trains El Potente.
Teao (Paco Lopez) is intriguing. A multiple Grade I winner in Chile and Peru, he’s making his U.S. debut for trainer John Sadler. Owner Don Alberto Stable is aiming for the Nov. 29 Japan Cup, not the Breeders’ Cup.
“I think he probably wants to run a little further than a mile, but this is a place to get him started,” Sadler said.
Picks: 1. El Potente (9-5 on the morning line), 2. King of Gosford (8-5 favorite), 3. Teao (6-1), 4. Detain (8-1).
Race 5: $200,000, Grade II Eddie D. Stakes, 3-year-olds and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf
In a competitive race, Freedom’s Not Free (Hernandez) returns to the Santa Anita course where the 4-year-old is best and shortens back to the unique hillside sprint distance where he beat Sumter (Mike Smith) and First Peace (Joel Rosario) in the Daytona Stakes in June.
“When they run as good as he did the first time down the hill, it usually means they have an affinity for it,” said Mark Glatt, who trains Freedom’s Not Free.
Pure Madness (Armando Ayuso) is a wild card, stepping up in class but bringing with him a big speed figure and seven straight exacta finishes.
Picks: 1. Freedom’s Not Free (6-1), 2. Sumter (6-1), 3. Sorrento Sky (5-2 favorite), 4. Pure Madness (3-1).
Race 7: $200,000, Grade II John Henry Turf Championship, 3-year-olds and up, 1¼ miles on turf
Atitlan (Umberto Rispoli) is back on friendly turf and the 5-year-old won’t have to face Gold Phoenix or Test Score this time.
If even-money on Atitlan is too short, Atomic Age (Kazushi Kimura) is a 4-year-old who improved rapidly after being gelded two starts back, leading late only to slip to a close third behind Test Score and Atitlan in the longer Del Mar Handicap.
“Hopefully going from a mile and three-eighths to a mile and a quarter, that helps him out,” trainer Phil D’Amato said.
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Likely frontrunner Balladeer (Julien Leparoux) won the John Henry in 2023 but is 1 for 23 since.
Picks: 1. Atitlan (1-1 favorite), 2. Atomic Age (7-2), 3. Mondego (3-1), 4. Balladeer (20-1).
Race 8: $300,000, Grade I Goodwood Stakes, 3-year-olds and up, 1⅛ miles
The winner of this race, which last produced a Breeders’ Cup Classic champion in 2018 with Accelerate, gets free entry in the $7 million Classic on Oct. 31. None of Saturday’s runners look like a Classic contenders based on accomplishment and current form.
It’s still an interesting contest. Bettors must compare nine horses who made their most recent starts in eight different races, at tracks in five different states or countries, at four different distances on dirt and two more on turf.
Bob Baffert-trained Nevada Beach (Hernandez) is properly favored to repeat but has been off for seven months since a debacle at the Saudi Cup. The X factors may be fellow 4-year-olds Caldera (Lopez) and Forged Steel (Edwin Gonzalez), sent in by trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., whose shippers do well here.
Assistant trainer Julia Ezra said Forged Steel seems “a lot happier” and more focused in training at Santa Anita than he was at Del Mar before a poor effort in the Pacific Classic.
Picks: 1. Nevada Beach (7-5 favorite), 2. Original Sin (6-1), 3. Caldera (5-1), 4. Forged Steel (5-1).
Race 9: $100,000, Grade III John C. Harris Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, about 6½ furlongs on turf
Not a Breeders’ Cup prep, on paper, but Doug O’Neill-trained Little Opal (Emisael Jaramillo) comes in undefeated and looking like the most probable winner on Saturday’s card.
Picks: 1. Little Opal (3-2 favorite), 2. Yours Sincerely (5-2), 3. Mo’ Em Down (6-1), 4. Surfin’ U.S.A. (30-1).
SUNDAY
Race 4: $200,000, Grade II Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes, 3-year-olds and up, 6 furlongs
With the national sprinters division depleted, there’s a good chance one or more Breeders’ Cup Sprint contenders will come out of this “Win and You’re In” race that produced a Sprint winner as recently as Straight No Chaser in 2024 and a Sprint runner-up in Imagination last year.
O’Neill-trained Listenupshance (Jaramillo) went from maiden-claiming winner to Grade I winner in a year by taking the Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, but fellow 4-year-old Maximum Bourbon (Rispoli) finished a nose behind and now gets the better of shifts in post positions and weights.
“To me, the 1 hole at Del Mar is probably the worst post you can have in the country, especially in a dirt sprint, so for him to run as well as he did, I give him extra credit for that,” D’Amato said of Maximum Bourbon.
Picks: 1. Maximum Bourbon, 2. Listenupshance, 3. Imagination, 4. Ahrens.
Race 8: $200,000, Grade II Zenyatta Stakes, fillies and mares, 3 and up, 1-1/16 miles
The Cal-bred 4-year-old Om N Joy (Kent Desormeaux) was an overmatched fourth against males in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar but crushed Grade II fillies and mares in the Santa Margarita at Santa Anita in May. She can sit behind what could be a fast pace.
Super Corredora (Rosario) makes her first start since March and seeks her first win since her 8-1 upset in the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar.
“I feel good that she’s come back (to training) well, and we’ll start up again,” Sadler said
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It’s “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Picks: 1. Om N Joy, 2. Rabeeba, 3. Super Corredora, 4. Super Corredora.
First post is 1 p.m. for the 19 days of the meet that runs through Nov. 1.
Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.