Double JH Stable's No Silent heads a packed field of 14 runners in the $100,000 Daytona Stakes (gr. IIIT) Dec. 26 at 6 1/2 furlongs down Santa Anita Park's Camino Real hillside turf course.
No Silent comes into Santa Anita's winter meet opening day off a sixth in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (gr. IT) Oct. 31 at Keeneland over turf rated as good, going 5 1/2 furlongs. Before that start the 6-year-old son of Silent Name won three straight races for trainer Gary Mandella, including the Eddie D. Stakes (gr. IIIT) Oct. 3 on the hillside course.
While No Silent boasts that recent stakes win sprinting down the hill, two-time grade II winner Alert Bay will try the unique course for the first time. Although the City Zip gelding won last year's Mathis Brothers Mile Stakes (gr. IIT), which will be offered on Saturday's card, trainer Blaine Wright has opted this year to start Peter Redekop's Alert Bay in the Daytona.
In five starts on the Santa Anita turf, Alert Bay has won four times with a third, taking the City of Hope Mile (gr. IIT) Sept. 27 in his most recent start there. Alert Bay will try to bounce back from a seventh-place finish in the Seabiscuit Handicap (gr. IIT) Nov. 27 at Del Mar.
Trained by James Cassidy and owned by Class Racing Stable, Holy Lute comes into Saturday's Daytona with a solid record when running down the hill. Though winless in his past three outings, Holy Lute has one win and four seconds from five starts down the hill and comes off a solid pair of seconds in two out of his last three races. Holy Lute returns to both the track and the course that he seems to thrive on and will attempt to win his first graded race.
Two other horses in Saturday's field boast previous stakes wins on the downhill course in Richard's Boy and Bench Warrant.
Santa Anita Park, Saturday, December 26, 2015, Race 4Entries: Daytona S. (G3T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Richard's Boy (CA) Victor Espinoza 117 Peter Miller 6/1 2 2Big Cazanova (ARG) Joel Rosario 119 Peter Miller 8/1 3 3Mystery Train (ARG) Martin A. Pedroza 119 Darrell Vienna 30/1 4 4Rocket Heat (KY) Edwin A. Maldonado 117 Vann Belvoir 12/1 5 5Big Bane Theory (CA) Flavien Prat 119 Carla Gaines 12/1 98 6Plainview (KY) SCRATCHED 0 UNKNOWN - 6 7Alert Bay (CA) Martin Garcia 124 Blaine D. Wright 5/1 7 8Bench Warrant (KY) Jose Lezcano 117 John W. Sadler 20/1 8 9Holy Lute (KY) Santiago Gonzalez 119 James M. Cassidy 9/2 9 10The Great War (KY) Kent J. Desormeaux 117 Wesley A. Ward 8/1 10 11Somethings Unusual (CA) Drayden Van Dyke 119 Michael W. McCarthy 20/1 11 12No Silent (KY) Gary L. Stevens 124 Gary Mandella 7/2 12 13Toowindytohaulrox (KY) Tiago Josue Pereira 119 Philip D'Amato 12/1 13 14Coastline (KY) Tyler Baze 119 Philip D'Amato 20/1
