No passing at Santa Anita!

Perhaps we are making way too much of this but I can't remember ever seeing it before. That doesn't mean of course it hasn't ever happened but in Santa Anita's third race on Saturday, January 29 the first five finishers ran in order all the way around the track without passing a rival! Hard to do? We think so!

Reba Is Tops is off to the breeding shed after winning her final start on Sunday. The gutty 7-year-old mare came from last to run down her rivals in the $70,000-added Wishing Well under Joe Talamo for trainer Mark Glatt. She finishes her career with 14 wins from 29 lifetime starts and has earned in excess of $408k.

Nice to see Martin Pedroza having a solid Santa Anita meeting. At 40-something years old now, the annual leading rider at Fairplex Park is currently riding like a bug boy and it seems he is attracting more live mounts than he has in the past. Maybe horsemen are figuring out what we knew a long time ago. This guy can ride!

Has anyone else checked out the fractions set in the Sunshine Millions Sprint on Saturday? Yes, they were legit fractions set by Cost of Freedom and Excessive Passion who must have thought they were at Los Alamitos running against quarter horses. Big time effort by Cost of Freedom who was only beaten by two heads for all the cash.

The familiar Evening Jewel returned  in the $300,000 Distaff as the James Cassidy filly returned to her top form and beat a decent field here under Victor Espinoza.

Switch didn't seem to miss Zenyatta one bit as she destroyed her rivals in the Grade I $250,000 Santa Monica under Joel Rosario for trainer John Sadler. The 4-year-old filly by Quiet American (Fappiano) out of Antoniette looks to have taken over as the top older filly or mare now that Zenyatta has gone to the breeding shed. She returned $2.60 to her backers.

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