ARCADIA, Calif. – Triple Crown revelry fades after the Belmont Stakes. Reality returns Sunday for California-based 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.
Only four entered the $100,000 Affirmed Stakes, two are maidens. While the 2025 Triple Crown series showed that California 3-year-olds can compete anywhere, the problem is there just aren’t many of them – the four graded dirt stakes for 3-year-olds this winter and spring at Santa Anita drew five entrants each.
The small field for the 1 1/16-mile Affirmed includes Bob Baffert trainees Nevada Beach and Gaming. Nevada Beach won his only start with a big figure. Gaming has placed in four graded stakes after winning the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity last summer. Gaming is entered in the Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes on Sunday at Churchill Downs but is expected to run at Santa Anita.
The remaining Affirmed starters are Westwood, a maiden who finished third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, and Rank, a 12-start maiden.
Debut winner Nevada Beach concedes seasoning to seven-start stablemate Gaming, whose recent 92 and 94 Beyer Speed Figures are higher than the 90 earned by Nevada Beach. But while Gaming has plateaued, Nevada Beach is likely to improve.
Nevada Beach was favored in his debut at one mile. He took dirt, rallied outside, and inched clear. In the seven weeks since, Nevada Beach has worked well. Do second-time starters win the Affirmed? Baffert did it last year with Parenting. Nevada Beach’s rider is Juan Hernandez.
Gaming has been stabled at Churchill since mid-April. The $400,000 Matt Winn is tough and has five entrants dropping from the Kentucky Derby. The Affirmed is easier for Gaming, whose rider would be Hector Berrios.
John Shirreffs trains Westwood, a four-start maiden who improved after being gelded early this year. Westwood, whose rider is Tiago Pereira, finished third behind Journalism and Baeza in the Santa Anita Derby last out.
One of the most interesting runners Sunday at Santa Anita is a second-start maiden filly in race 1. A Friend of Mine, runner-up by a nose in her debut, is expected to be strongly favored stretching to two turns. Sired by Mineshaft, A Friend of Mine is a 4-year-old sibling to recently retired millionaire Desert Dawn. Phil D’Amato trained Desert Dawn and trains A Friend of Mine.
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“She’s acted like a two-turn horse from the get-go,” D’Amato said. A Friend of Mine has a way to go to match Desert Dawn, but D’Amato said “they both acted like fillies of quality, and both wanted to go long.”
Desert Dawn finished a distant third in her sprint debut, then stretched to a mile and won her second start by open lengths.
A Friend of Mine is owned and bred by the mother-daughter team of Elena and Hollie Crim, who operate H & E Ranch. They still own Desert Dawn, who was bred this spring to Nyquist and is scheduled to deliver her first foal in 2026.
* There will be a pick six carryover of $54,869 on Sunday after no one successfully selected all six winners in Saturday. Sunday's pick six starts with race 4, which is the race after the Affirmed.
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