Thursday's 8th race (4:33pm PT) from Santa Anita Park is a $50,000 Maiden Claiming event for 4-year-olds and up traveling a mile and a sixteenth on the main track.
#1 Soul Saver (4-1) finished a respectable 5th of 12 in a local sprint off the shelf Dec 26. He was making nice progress from a numbers standpoint proir to his last and is bred to handle this distance. Today's pilot Martin Garcia rode him to a place finish over the downhill turf course last year and he was nosed in a local main track extended sprint in November. He is tagged for the first time and should sit a decent ground saving prominent throughout trip. David Hofmans saddled Sultry Season to a Starter Allowance win here Sunday.
#6 Candy's Jewel (5-2) exits an even 4th in a BHP turf route. The MSW dropper owns the best conventional dirt numbers and is an obvious tactical threat for the productive Bejarano-Hollendorfer team.
#5 Bipartisan (9-2) finished 2nd in a local Maiden Claiming route off the Hendricks claim Oct 25. He was a well-beaten 4th in a MSW synthetic route at BHP last time and could bounce back in this softer dirt spot.
#4 Stars and Moons (4-1) has been right there in all three tagged outings for Ellis. Talamo sticks with the $135k Keeneland sales grad.
#9 Prime Number (7-2) drops, switches surfaces, and stretches out. He figures to flash early speed for Sadler.
The Plays:
$16 to win #1
$2 Trifecta 1-6/1-6/4-5-9 ($12)
$1 Trifecta Key 1/4-5-6-9 ($12)
analysis by Jarrod Horak
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