Santa Anita Derby

$$750,0001,0000,000 SANTA ANITA HANDICAP SANTA ANITA DERBY GAME ON DUDE Dear Member of the Media: Now in its 78th year of Thoroughbred racing, Santa Anita is proud to have hosted many of the sport’s greatest moments. Although the names of its historic human and horse heroes may have changed in the SANTA ANITA HANDICAP past seven decades of racing, Santa Anita’s prominence in the sport $1,000,000 Guaranteed (Grade I) remains constant. Saturday, March 7, 2015 • Seventy-Eighth Running This year, Santa Anita will present the 78th edition of one of rac- Gross Purse: $1,000,000 Winner’s Share: $600,000 Other Awards: $200,000 second; $120,000 third; $50,000 fourth; $20,000 fifth ing’s premier races — the $1,000,000 Santa Anita Handicap on Saturday, Distance: One and one-quarter miles on the main track March 7. Nominations: Close February 21, 2015 at $100 each The historic Big ‘Cap was the nation’s first continually run $100,000 Supplementary nominations of $25,000 by 12 noon, Feb. 28, 2015 Track and American stakes race and has arguably had more impact on the progress of Dirt Record: 1:57 4/5, Spectacular Bid, 4 (Bill Shoemaker, 126, February 3, Thoroughbred racing than any other single event in the sport. The 1980, Charles H. Strub Stakes) importance of this race and many of its highlights are detailed by the Stakes Record: 1:58 3/5, Affirmed, 4 (Laffit Pincay Jr., 128, March 4, 1979) Gates Open: 10:00 a.m. esteemed sports journalist John Hall beginning on page 2. First Post Time: 12:00 noon If you have questions regarding the 2015 Big ‘Cap, or if you are Other Feature Races: $400,000 Frank E. Kilroe Mile (Gr. I) interested in obtaining credentials, please contact the Publicity $400,000 San Felipe Stakes (Gr. II) Department at your convenience. $250,000 San Carlos Stakes (Gr. II) Table of Contents John Hall’s Big ‘Cap Review . .2 Chart of 2014 Santa Anita Handicap ..................................................7 History of the First 77 Big ’Caps ......................................................8 Facts & Figures on the First 77 Big ’Caps ............................................10 Big ’Cap Milestones and Highlights ..................................................16 Mike Willman Santa Anita Handicap Day Records .................................................20 Largest Crowds & Handles, Highest & Lowest Mutuel Payoffs .........................21 Director of Publicity Fastest and Slowest Times; Fractions; Margin of Victory...............................22 Highest & Lowest Weights; Supplementary Nominees.................................23 Post Positions, Mutuel Fields ........................................................24 Miscellaneous......................................................................25 Triple Crown Race Winners & Champions in the Big ’Cap .............................26 Horses Who Have Run in More Than One Big ’Cap ...................................28 Horses Who Have Started in the Big ’Cap............................................29 Jockeys Who Have Ridden Horses in the Big ’Cap ....................................37 Trainers Who Have Run Horses in the Big ’Cap .......................................47 Trainer Charlie Whittingham in the Big ’Cap ..........................................57 Owners Who Have Run Horses in the Big ’Cap ...................................... 58 Publicity Phone (626) 574-6396 Fax (626) 574-6682 3 John Hall’s Big ’Cap Remembrances Horse of the Year Discovery finished seventh in 1936. Twenty Grand wasn’t worth twen- The Big ’Cap is the one big race beyond all others that has proved the greatness and ty bucks in 1935. Horse of the Year Armed ran fifth in 1947 behind Chile’s stretch-streaking certified the turf immortality of Seabiscuit, Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, John Henry, Round silver ghost, Olhaverry. Horse of the Year Hill Prince ran down and out in 1952. And odds- Table, Cougar II, Tiznow and Alysheba among the Super Novas in the kingdom of the on Gentlemen bled and finished a fading fourth and last after Kentucky Derby king Silver Thoroughbred. Charm scratched to hand the 1998 Big 'Cap to Malek on a silver platter. It began that way and remains that way. Looking back now to put it in perspective, it But the legends have been legendary, too. Affirmed returning triumphantly from his came out of the blue in the most desperate of times as a bona fide miracle. SA Derby and Triple Crown glories of the previous year to put the frosting on it all in the On the day of the first Santa Anita Handicap, a loaf of sliced bread cost 6 to 8 cents in 1979 renewal. The Biscuit losing in heart-stopping photos to Rosemont in 1937 and feather- Southern California as well as most everywhere else in the dreary Depression-locked USA. weighted Stagehand, 100 to 130, in 1938, and then coming back at age 7 after being sidelined Milk was 10 cents a quart and gas was 11 cents a gallon. A luxury Packard roadster was top a full year with injuries to stir the soul and inspire a Hollywood movie with the most dramatic priced at $980. You could buy a Willys 4-door compact for $375. of all triumphs in 1940. John Henry being John Henry, never giving in . Whittingham It was Feb. 23, 1935, and when Iceman George Woolf got the reformed Irish steeple- winning nine times with nine seconds and seven thirds and three times finishing 1-2. Lord chaser, Azucar, home in a sizeable upset to win the inaugural ‘Big Cap and collect the At War scoring for the record live crowd of 85,527 in 1985. Nick Wall, Stagehand’s jockey, winning purse of $108,400, the entire startled and awed world took sudden notice of the stunning the world again with $118 Bay View in 1941. Vigors, Best Pal, Thumbs Up, Crystal country’s for years ONLY “Hundred Grander” handicap. Water and Stardust Mel all part of it, too, writing their own particular chapters—outsiders Winning purse for the 1935 Kentucky Derby champion, Omaha, was $39,525. Joe and short pricers and crowd-pleasers all coming home on their best day of all. DiMaggio was having a sensational season for the Pacific Coast League San Francisco Seals The Hundred Grander evolved into the even grander Millon Dollar Bigger ’Cap in 1986, in 1935 on his way to signing his first big league contract with the New York Yankees—for also a world’s first, just in time for Greinton. With the 78th running now at hand, it’s also Cole $8,000. Tickets to the 1935 Stanford-Alabama Rose Bowl game were $1.65. Porter time again. Anything goes . and anything can happen. Needless to elaborate, the $100,000 Santa Anita Handicap’s place in history as one of the great healing and inspiring sparks helping brighten the spirits and hopes of a gloomy (John Hall covered Southern California sports for over one-half century as a nation was instantly secured forever. columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register.) It is impossible now to measure or even imagine the Big ‘Cap’s impact at that time on horse racing, the city of Los Angeles, all of sports and all of America. Times got better. The epic big money turf attractions have evolved into the multi-millions. Dollar signs of the moment just don’t make a valid yardstick. But historians can measure. And it has been recorded reliably in the archives that Santa Anita’s first Hundred Grander in 1935, the first Los Angeles Olympics of 1932, Pasadena’s annual New Year’s Day Rose Bowl game remodeled in 1923 and the annual USC- Notre Dame football intersectionals starting in 1926 at the Coliseum were the four foremost energizers putting the southland on the map as a major league metropolis. And the Hundred Grander turned horse racing into a national passion. At the very least, from the moment shortly after the track’s grand opening Christmas Day 1934 when founder Charles (Doc) Strub announced the historic Hundred Grand purse for the first Big ‘Cap, Santa Anita became the pacesetter and centerpiece of the Thoroughbred planet as they all came running from the East—all the great stables and stars, the Whitneys, the Vanderbilts, the Duponts and more—to lead the way in what became California’s second great Gold Rush. The field of 20 in the first Big ‘Cap featured Equipoise, the nation’s No. 1 ranked handicap champion; legendary 1931 Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Twenty Grand; 1932 Belmont winner Faireno; and 1933 Preakness champion Head Play. Also the popular campaigners Top Row (1936 Big ’Cap winner) and Time Supply (third in ‘35, second in ‘36). From high-kicking Azucar in No. 1 to last year’s winner Game on Dude, in No. 77, the tradition of great champions, great races, great upsets, great purses and great everything at The Great Race Place has only grown. Horsemen (outside of the late Charlie Whittingham) have called it the most difficult of all the major handicaps to win. The only three-time winner in Big 'Cap history is Game On Dude (2011, 2013 and 2014); the only two-time winners in history are John Henry (1981-82), Milwaukee Brew (2002-03) and Lava Man (2006-07). It took the legendary Seabiscuit three In 1982, John Henry became the first two-time winner of the Big ‘Cap. tries to finally get it right in 1940. Mighty Citation (132 pounds) couldn’t hold off Noor (110) in He was the last horse to carry 130 pounds to victory at Santa Anita. the 1950 heartbreaker. 4 5 2014 Santa Anita Handicap Chart NINTH RACE 1õ MILES. (1.57©) 77TH RUNNING OF THE SANTA ANITA HANDICAP. Grade I. Purse $750,000 (plus $750 Other Sources ) FOR FOUR-YEAR-OLDS AND UPWARD. By subscription of $100 each to Santa Anita accompany the nomination, closed with 16. $2,500 to pass the entry box and $7,500 to start with $750,000 guaranteed, of which $450,000 to first, $150,000 to second, $90,000 to third, $45,000to fourth and $15,000 to MARCH 8, 2014 fifth.

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