HOLLENDORFER SEEKS OAKS-BIG ’CAP DOUBLE AT SANTA ANITA SATURDAY
Jerry Hollendorfer, Northern California’s all-time leading trainer and the fourth- winningest trainer in North American racing history, will be gunning for a big day at Santa Anita Saturday.
Saturday is Santa Anita Handicap Day at the Arcadia racetrack and there is a special noon post time the 11-race Big ’Cap card. First post at Golden Gate Fields, where there is a nine-race program, is 12:15 p.m.
Hollendorfer, who had 5,615 career victories going into Friday’s racing, will saddle heavy favorite Blind Luck in the Grade 1 $250,000 Santa Anita Oaks and long shots Rendezvous and Dakota Phone in the Grade 1 $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap.
Blind Luck, who won the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes by seven lengths and the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes by a nose in her most recent start, is a 1-to-2 favorite on the morning line in the Santa Anita Oaks.
Blind Luck will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano in the 1 1/16-miles test for 3-year-old fillies and break from post position five in a field of eight. Owned in partnership by Hollendorfer, Mark DeDomenico and John Carver, Blind Luck has five wins, a second and a third in seven career starts and $859,050 in earnings.
Hollendorfer will try to blow up the tote board in the Santa Anita Handicap with Rendezvous and Dakota Phone as both horses are 20-to-1 on the morning line. A full field of 14 will contest the 1 1/4-miles classic for older horses, with Rendezvous breaking from post three under jockey Joe Talamo and Dakota Phone post 11 under Victor Espinoza.
Rendezvous has already proven he can pull off a shocker as he captured the 2009 Del Mar Derby at odds of 22-to-1. A 4-year-old colt who has four wins in 17 career starts, Rendezvous races for the partnership of Hollendorfer, George Todaro and Team Green.
Dakota Phone came within a head of scoring a stunner in his most recent race when he finished second at odds of 34-to-1 in the Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 7. A 5-year-old gelding who has claimed victory in four of his 23 races, Dakota Phone is owned in partnership by Hollendorfer, Carver, Todaro and Halo Farms.
Hollendorfer will be trying to win the Santa Anita Handicap for the second time in three years as he notched his first Big ’Cap victory in 2008 with Irish-bred Heatseeker.