Sunday’s Super Bowl Starter Handicap for 4-year-olds and up at one
mile turf was split into two divisions. The fourth race is the San
Francisco Division, while the sixth is the Baltimore Division.
This is the eighth straight year Santa Anita’s racing department
has offered the popular race, but for the first time, it will be run in
two divisions.
Rags-to-riches Unusual Jazz drew the rail in the Baltimore,
which, like the San Francisco, offers a $40,000 purse for the one mile
turf event.
“He’ll sit in behind leaders and make one run from the quarter
pole to the wire,” said trainer Steve Knapp, who claimed Unusual Jazz
for $8,000 at Fairplex in September of 2011 before he climbed the ranks,
earning some $170,000 along the way.
The 6-year-old Unusual Heat horse won the March Madness Handicap
at Santa Anita going nine furlongs on grass last March and won his last
start at a mile on turf by 2 ¼ lengths.
“He came out of the last race very, very well and he’s very sharp
right now,” Knapp added.
As for Super Bowl XLVII matching the 49ers and the Ravens, Knapp is
leaning towards Baltimore, a three-point underdog. “I’d like to see
Baltimore win,” he said. “I’d like to see Ray Lewis go out with a
victory.”