Flagstaff Wins San Carlos Stakes
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Flagstaff handily wins the San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita Park
Though the morning of March 7 didn't begin well for trainer John Sadler and owner Hronis Racing when their handicap standout Gift Box needed to be scratched from the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) due to an injured ankle, the early afternoon hours at Santa Anita Park proved a different story with a different horse.
The Sadler-trained Flagstaff, a gelding Hronis Racing owns with Lane's End Racing, proved a handy winner of the $200,500 San Carlos Stakes (G2), defeating 2019 Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Roadster and providing a valuable consolation prize.
Then, for good measure, they still managed to win the Santa Anita Handicap when their apparent second-stringer and so-called "insurance policy," Combatant, scored a 9-1 upset. The win provided them with their third consecutive victory in the Santa Anita Handicap.
Though Flagstaff was not in front until the stretch of the San Carlos, he looked like a winner throughout. Fourth down the backstretch as stablemate St. Joe Bay went to the lead with fractions of :22.27 and :45.04 in the seven-furlong race, Flagstaff always seemed to be traveling sweetly under Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza.
Confidently handled, he quickly swallowed up the leaders when asked, taking the lead with an eighth of a mile remaining, and maintained a 1 1/4-length advantage in the final furlong over a late-rallying Roadster.
"When I moved out, that was it; it's just another gear that he has," Espinoza said.
The outcome repeated a 1-2 finish from the pair when they last met in the Nov. 2 Damascus Stakes on the Breeders' Cup undercard at Santa Anita.
"He's just a top horse in the sprint division. We think he is going to be one of the best in the country this year," Sadler said of Flagstaff.
McKale fared the best of the frontrunners, holding on for third after pressing the pace. He was followed by Law Abidin Citizen, Manhattan Up, and St. Joe Bay.
Flagstaff paid $4 as the even-money favorite. It was his first graded stakes victory after a third in the Oct. 5 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (G1) and a second in the Jan. 25 Palos Verdes Stakes (G2). The final time was 1:22.64 on a fast track.
"That's racehorse time," said co-owner Bill Farish of Lane's End. Farish traveled from Kentucky to California for the race.
A 6-year-old son of Speightstown , Flagstaff is out of the A.P. Indy mare Indyan Giving, making him a half brother to 2018 champion 2-year-old colt Game Winner. In 2015, Flagstaff was purchased by Mayberry Farm for $475,000 at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's yearling sale in New York, from the Lane's End consignment. He was bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Farm.
The ownership partnership was later formed between Hronis Racing and Lane's End, and their relationship extends to other racehorses and stallions. Accelerate , the champion older horse of 2018 for Sadler and Hronis Racing, stands at Lane's End in Kentucky.