Santa Anita’s opening weekend highlighted by Awesome Again Stakes

Eight horses will enter the starting gate for Saturday’s $300,000 Grade I Awesome Again Stakes, the centerpiece of Santa Anita’s 18-day fall meet that begins today with a nine-race card.

The prize for the winner? An all-expenses paid berth in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland and a matchup with Godzilla ... err, Flightline, on Nov. 5.

Some prize, huh? Trainer Bob Baffert, whose Country Grammer finished second, 19 1/4 lengths behind Flightline, in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Sept. 3, is scheduled to start four horses in the Awesome Again. He’s also planning to send Pennsylvania Derby winner Taiba to Lexington, Kentucky, for a shot at Flightline in the Classic.

Has Baffert lost his marbles? No, it’s just he’s been around the game long enough to know it’s horse racing and anything can happen. Longshots like Onion and Prove Out beat the great Secretariat. Spectacular Bid was upset in the Belmont. It happens. These horses aren’t machines.

As of now, Flightline looks unbeatable. But as many trainers have said, you can’t win if you’re not in. Life Is Good, a likely Classic starter, will be the best horse Flightline has squared off against in his five starts, which he’s won by a staggering 62 3/4 combined lengths. That’s more than 12 lengths per victory.

Travers Stakes winner Epicenter, who along with Taiba is vying for top male 3-year-old of the year, is another top challenger Flightline will have to contend with in the Classic. There will be others, too. After all, second prize in a $6 million race is nothing to sneeze at. Some owners and trainers might shy away from the Classic and opt for the Dirt Mile, but I think most of the top horses will try to topple Flightline.

Three of the Awesome Again starters — Country Grammer, Royal Ship and Express Train — all took their best shots against Flightline in the Pacific Classic and needed a telescope to see him at the finish. Baffert jokingly said after Country Grammer had finished so far behind Flightline but seven lengths clear of third-place finisher Royal Ship that Country Grammer thought he’d won the race.

“He’s a super star,” Baffert said of Flightline. “When you see a horse like that, you gotta salute him. (Fans) are gonna leave here and say they just saw something special.”

The Awesome Again is just one of 10 stakes races at Santa Anita this weekend. Only two have the “Win and You’re In” tag for the Breeders’ Cup, but there are some intriguing story lines in the others.

On Saturday, two-time graded stakes winner Beyond Brilliant, trained by John Shirreffs, heads a six-horse field in the $200,000 Grade II City of Hope Mile on the turf. The 4-year-old Twirling Candy colt won the Grade

II Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita on April 30 after taking the Grade I Hollywood Derby at Del Mar in November 2021.

Forbidden Kingdom, sixth in this year’s Santa Anita Derby as the evenmoney favorite, returns off a six-month layoff to square off against six others in the $200,000 Grade II Santa Anita Sprint Championship at 6 furlongs.

Does C Z Rocket, who won this race in 2020 and then finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint that year, still have enough left in the tank at age 8 to win this race? He’s won 12 of 33 lifetime for earnings of $1.5 million.

Some horses love the downhill turf course at Santa Anita, one of the most unique layouts in the world. Air Force Red, 3 for 3 down the hill, is one of those horses. The son of Air Force Blue is still looking for his first stakes victory, but he’s shortening up from a mile to 6 1/2 furlongs for the $200,000 Grade II Edde D. Stakes. That’s sometimes a sure-fire recipe for success down the hill.

The spotlight will be on fillies and mares Sunday in the $200,000 Grade II Zenyatta Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. Also, 2-year-olds will line up in the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes at 5 furlongs on the turf for an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup.

First post for today’s opening day is 1 p.m. Action will get underway at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.