FINISH LINES: Santa Anita will give away its popular full color Wall Calendar free on Opening Day to all fans at the track with paid admission while supplies last . . . The first 20,000 paid attendees will receive a $100 Mathis Brothers Furniture gift certificate, and the first 5,000 kids 17 and under accompanied by a paid adult will get a plush, mini-Thoroughbred toy, courtesy of the Mathis Brothers . . . Santa Anita will offer an opening day Trackside Package that includes special trackside seating, a free first drink, and an officially licensed American Pharoah T-shirt commemorating the first-ever Grand Slam champion of horse racing. Use promo code PHAROAH for $5 off the package price . . . Santa Anita Derby winner Dortmund, who worked five furlongs Thursday in 1:00.40 for Bob Baffert, will not run in the Malibu, the Hall of Fame trainer said Friday morning. “I don’t want to back him up,” Baffert said, alluding to the 1 1/8-mile Native Diver Stakes Dortmund won on Nov. 28 and the seven furlong Malibu. A more likely spot for the son of Big Brown would be the Jan. 9 San Pasqual Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth and a likely confrontation with 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome . . . Another candidate for the San Pasqual is Gold Cup at Santa Anita winner Hard Aces trained by John Sadler, who said Santa Anita Oaks winner Stellar Wind is enjoying some R&R and won’t start back until mid-meet, with the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita a long-range goal . . . Triple Crown-winning jockey Victor Espinoza, a finalist for Santa Anita’s George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, was a visitor to Clocker’s Corner Friday morning, recently back from Hong Kong where he participated in a Jockeys’ Challenge competition . . . Agent Nelson Arroyo reports that Stuart Elliott arrives from Kentucky next Friday to ride full time at Santa Anita. Arroyo also represents Abel Cedeno, who has been busy in the mornings working horses for alpha trainers Richard Baltas, Jerry Hollendorfer, Peter Miller, Doug O’Neill and Sadler . . . Multiple graded stakes winner Taris worked four furlongs Friday in 49.40 for trainer Simon Callaghan . . . Agent Michael Burns has taken the book of jockey Jose Verenzuela. The 48-year-old has been riding more than 25 years and ridden more than 1,500 winners with his biggest victory coming in the $2 million Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Nad Al Sheba in 2009 aboard the Jerry Barton-trained Big City Man for Saudi Prince Sultan Mohammad Saud Al Kabeer. A native of Venezuela and a countrymate of North America's leading jockey by earnings Javier Castellano in addition to hot-riding Santiago Gonzalez, Verenzuela also rode for three seasons in Singapore, with his biggest success coming aboard Flax in the $500,000, Group 1 Raffles Cup in 2012. Burns also represents 25-year-old Gonzalo Nicolas, who began riding as a journeyman on Memorial Day and has ridden 51 winners . . . Greg Hendricks, 20-year-old son of trainer Dan Hendricks, was aboard multiple stakes winner Om as he galloped Friday morning in preparation for the Mathis Brothers Mile. “Greg’s been galloping for me since he was 16,” Dan said . . . Serving coffee free at Clockers’ Corner, generously initiated by Los Angeles Turf Club Chairman Keith Brackpool two days ago, is proving a rousing success. “We served over 200 cups Thursday, double our normal amount,” said hostess Rosie Ybarra. “Before, everybody would walk around with a Starbucks. Now they walk around with a Rosiebucks.”
Source: Santa Anita Park
