ARCADIA, Calif. – Sprint-to-route is the handicapping theme in one-mile races Sunday at Santa Anita – the $100,000 Cinema Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf and an entry-level dirt allowance that includes the most probable winner on the card.
Artislas stretches out in the Cinema, race 7. A multiple stakes winner last season, Artislas figures to improve off his third-place sprint comeback. Self Sufficient, third in a fast sprint, stretches out as likely favorite in race 8. He should be long gone.
The reason Artislas is not a Cinema cinch is Freedom’s Not Free, a decisive sprint-to-route stakes winner last month. Artislas and Freedom’s Not Free top a Cinema field that includes Arizona stakes winner Bodi Zafa, Florida sprint-stakes winner Incanto, Game Warrior, and Mythical Reel.
Jeff Mullins trains Artislas, who won three turf routes last year, the most by any 2-year-old male in North America. Artislas would have won four, but he was disqualified for causing interference in the Grade 3 Zuma Beach Stakes at Santa Anita. His 3-for-5 juvenile campaign ended with a Dec. 29 victory in the Eddie Logan at Santa Anita.
Artislas returned April 6 as the favorite in a hillside sprint stakes, and Mullins knew he was up against it. “I don’t think he’s a down the hill horse, but there was nowhere else to run,” Mullins said. “He just needed a race under his belt.”
Artislas finished third by a half-length. Subsequent team works April 18 and 25 hinted he was at least as good this year as he was at 2. Artislas worked heads-up with older filly Queen Maxima, who then won the Grade 3 Unbridled Sidney Stakes by more than three lengths at Churchill Downs.
In a figurative sense, Artislas is dropping in class on Sunday, from team workouts with an older stakes-winning stablemate into a race restricted to 3-year-olds. Artislas will be ridden by his regular jockey Reylu Gutierrez.
Freedom’s Not Free is the main threat as he tries to reproduce his two-length victory March 9 in the Pasadena Stakes. Trainer Mark Glatt suspected the stretch-out colt would relish the one-mile distance.
“We have thought the farther the better with him all along,” Glatt said in the post-race interview. “He kind of got stuck in a couple of sprints just for the lack of an alternative place to run him.”
Antonio Fresu rides Freedom’s Not Free.
Bodi Zafa makes his California debut after four straight wins at Turf Paradise, including the Turf Paradise Derby on dirt and Luke Kruytbosch Stakes on turf. Previously trained by Wade Rarick, Bodi Zafa runs Sunday for trainer John Sadler and will have Kazushi Kimura aboard.
The Cinema is the last open turf-route stakes for 3-year-olds in California until the Del Mar summer meet opens July 18. By then, two local stakes-winning 3-year-olds who ran last weekend in Kentucky could return to California. Iron Man Cal and Scipio finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the Grade 1 American Turf at Churchill.
The nine-race Sunday program begins with stretch-out Bro Bro in race 1, an entry-level allowance for California-bred 3-year-olds at one mile on turf. But the most probable stretch-out winner on Sunday is in race 8, an entry-level allowance.
Self Sufficient runs a mile on dirt for trainer Michael McCarthy after two better-than-looked sprints. He finished seventh with a troubled trip in his comeback, then dueled on a fast pace and finished third last out in a highly rated race.
“I sprinted him twice just because that’s the way it’s fallen, I haven’t been able to get a route,” McCarthy said. “He is back off a quick rest [15 days since raced], but he seems like he’s doing well.” Self Sufficient adds blinkers and can wire the field under Kimura.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.