Three grade I winners are included in the field of nine set to go in Santa Anita's $100,000 Thunder Road Handicap (gr. IIIT) Feb. 5.
Though it is the lowest graded of three stakes on the program, the one-mile turf lineup came up extremely tough. Included are grade I victors Fluke, Dakota Phone and Victor's Cry, as well as veteran grade II winner Proudinsky, and Meteore, who also owns a grade II win.
The Thunder Road, set to go at 4:07 p.m. PST as the eighth race on the card, supports the $250,000 Las Virgenes (gr. I) for 3-year-old fillies and the $200,000 Strub Stakes (gr. II) for 4-year-olds, both of which are on the main track.
Victor's Cry, winner of last spring's Shoemaker Mile (gr. IT) at 21-1 odds and freshened since an 11-1 surprise in the Citation Handicap (gr. IIT) Nov. 27, is the 122-pound high weight. The 6-year-old Virginia-bred son of Street Cry, owned by Equilete Stable and trained by Eoin Harty, tallied both of those upsets at Hollywood Park. He now returns to a Santa Anita course where his lone win came in an allowance on the hillside turf layout one year ago.
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