ARCADIA, Calif. – There are not likely to be too many stakes winners at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting who pay as little and win as easily as Stark Contrast did in the $100,000 Eddie Logan Stakes on Thursday.
Stark Contrast ($2.60) stalked the pace to the turn and took a convincing lead in early stretch. Ridden by Kazushi Kimura, Stark Contrast won the one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds by 2 1/4 lengths.
“He’s a natural talent,” Kimura said. “He’s getting better and training better. He has natural speed, so I was confident. I was waiting for the right time, and he responded for the win.”
Stark Contrast gave 54-year-old trainer Michael McCarthy his 500th win in a career that began in 2006.
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Stark Contrast tracked Brigante, who set a slow pace of 24.42 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 49.03 for a half-mile, leading by a half-length. Stark Contrast took the lead with a two-wide move. He was timed in 1:35.38.
Brigante (17-1) held second, his best result in a stakes in his fifth appearance in such a race since early August.
Unrivaled Time, winner of the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 30, closed from fifth in a field of five to finish third, three lengths behind Brigante. Iriseach and Third Beer completed the order of finish.
Caro Buono and Plutarch were scratched. Caro Buono will be pointed to a turf race later this month, trainer Leonard Powell said. Plutarch is a candidate for the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes at a mile on dirt on Feb. 7, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Stark Contrast, a colt by Caravaggio, has won 3 of 5 starts and earned $342,800 for owners and breeders John and Jerry Amerman. Stark Contrast won the Grade 3 Zuma Beach Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 5 in his stakes debut and was second to Gstaad by three-quarters of a length at 58-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar on Oct. 31.
The Eddie Logan Stakes was postponed twice in recent weeks. The race was originally scheduled for Dec. 28, but it was pushed to Dec. 31 when the Dec. 26 opening-day program was canceled because of rain. The races scheduled for Dec. 26 were held on Dec. 28.
The Dec. 31 program was also canceled because of rain, leading the track to move the Logan Stakes to Thursday, a replacement day for the recent rainouts.
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