ARCADIA, Calif. – At least one 1 1/4-mile stakes race Saturday has John Shirreffs’s name on it. The trainer hopes there are two.
California-based Shirreffs has been in Kentucky all week training Baeza for a potential start in the Kentucky Derby. But as of Thursday, Baeza remained stuck on the also-eligible list needing one defection to draw into the 20-horse Derby field.
Back home at Santa Anita, it is less complicated. Shirreffs-trained Atitlan is expected to start favored over six rivals in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes on turf. If he runs as well as his last race, Atitlan should be tough to beat.
Six weeks after winning the Grade 3, 1 1/2-mile San Luis Rey Stakes at 9-1, Atitlan shortens up as the 3-2 Whittingham favorite. His main rival is City Exile, recent runner-up in a second-level allowance turf mile. Five others entered the Whittingham, which looks like a two-horse race.
The Whittingham is the second race in the pick six sequence, which has a carryover of $20,522.
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Atitlan ran like a new horse in the San Luis Rey when he rallied from the back to win by two lengths under Hector Berrios. Shirreffs attributes the colt’s improvement to a new style.
“He settled well and made one run,” Shirreffs said, adding that Atitlan “is still developing a style, and not being fresh helped him.”
Berrios coaxed Atitlan into a comfortable stride in the San Luis Rey, positioned near the back of the field. It was a change from pace-pressing losses in two previous starts. Berrios said a shorter blinker helped Atitlan settle, and when Berrios pushed the button, Atitlan took off. It was his second stakes. He won the Grade 2, 1 1/8-mile Twilight Derby at Santa Anita last fall.
One key question Saturday is whether Atitlan can be as effective at the shorter Whittingham distance as he was at a mile and a half last out. Distance is not an issue, according to Shirreffs.
“I don’t think that should be bother him. He’s run a lot of different distances,” Shirreffs said. “I think a mile and a quarter is certainly in his range.”
Atitlan, a 4-year-old by The Factor, has won three races and $300,000 from nine starts for owner John O’Connor.
City Exile, trained by Phil D’Amato, looms the main threat to Atitlan. D’Amato nominated 2024 winner Gold Phoenix to the Whittingham, but he shipped to Churchill Downs for the Grade 1, $1 million Old Forester Turf Classic on Saturday, leaving City Exile as D’Amato’s only starter.
Tiago Pereira rides City Exile, who stretches out from a fast runner-up finish at one mile. City Exile won an entry-level allowance at Del Mar last summer at a mile and three-eighths, therefore the distance of the Whittingham should not be of concern.
Others entered in the Whittingham include graded stakes winners Dicey Mo Chara, Maltese Falcon, Packs a Wahlop, and Balladeer. Listed stakes winner Wizard of Westwood, a Michael McCarthy-trained stablemate of Kentucky Derby favorite Journalism, is also entered.
Post time for the $200,000 Whittingham, race 6, is listed at 3 p.m. Pacific, nearly an hour before the Kentucky Derby is set to go off.
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