Recent allowance and maiden winner SKUKUZA (Lord Avie) and Santa Anita H.
(G1) third-place finisher SAINT BUDDY (Saint Ballado) will square off in
Wednesday’s feature from Santa Anita. Run as the 7TH race, the 1 1/16-mile
optional-claiming event features a field of eight.
Skukuza broke his maiden by two lengths in his third career start in
mid-October at Santa Anita and then returned to defeat allowance rivals at
Hollywood Park in his last outing. Rene Douglas rides the John Sadler-trained
four-year-old gelding. Saint Buddy owns a 0-2-1 mark from his last three outings
and tends to run his best races at Santa Anita for Rafael Becerra.
Other contenders include CAPITANO (Belong To Me), who has placed in three graded
events, including a runner-up finish in last year’s Norfolk S. (G2) in Arcadia;
EL DON (Cee’s Tizzy), who exits a sharp Hollywood allowance score for
conditioner Marty Jones; and the Neil Drysdale-trained AMERICAN LIBERTY (Storm
Cat).