Authentic, Combatant Exit Saturday in Good Order

Three feel-good storylines emerged from a spectacular afternoon of racing on Big 'Cap Day March 7 at Santa Anita Park—two familiar, one not so.

Bob Baffert won another San Felipe Stakes (G2), a record seventh; John Sadler won the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) for the third consecutive year, a first in the 83-year history of the storied race; and Ron McAnally, whose victories are as scarce as hen's teeth in his 87th year, got win No. 706 at The Great Race Place, good for fourth on the all-time list.

Only Bobby Frankel, Charlie Whittingham, and Baffert stand ahead of him.

Baffert won the San Felipe with undefeated Authentic; Sadler went to the junior varsity to take the Big 'Cap with 9-1 shot Combatant after favored stablemate Gift Box was scratched due to an ankle issue; and McAnally scored a frontrunning victory in the ninth race with his homebred She's Our Charm at $11.60 for his wife, Deborah, the filly's owner and co-breeder.

"They looked fine today," Baffert said of Authentic and Thousand Words, who finished fourth in the San Felipe. The two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer intends to keep Authentic in California for the April 4 Santa Anita Derby (G1), but plans for Thousand Words were on hold.

"I haven't figured it out yet," he said of Thousand Words. "I'll wait two weeks."

Sadler, meanwhile, weathered the unexpected storm unleashed by Gift Box in relatively good order, looking at the glass half full.

"It was a great day; we were just thrilled," said Sadler, who also sent out Flagstaff to take the San Carlos Stakes (G2) under Victor Espinoza. "To win our third Big 'Cap in a row is tremendous. I'm really happy."

Sadler said Saturday morning was a low after learning Gift Box wouldn't run, but the day up ended on a high note.

"It was an emotional roller coaster," he said. "Gift Box had a little swelling in his ankle. We're going to do some tests the next couple of days. It doesn't look like anything terrible, but he wasn't good to go yesterday. Everybody forgets these are horses and things happen. They get sick, and that's part of the game."

McAnally, a mainstay here since 1948, is still consumed with the ambiance and history of Santa Anita, where he can be found by sunup race mornings at Clockers' Corner, decades after his glory days with legendary two-time Horse of the Year John Henry.

"I don't even think about retiring," said McAnally, whose assistant of 25 years, 69-year-old former trainer Dan Landers, does all his heavy lifting at the barn. Dan's memories of Santa Anita go back to its opening on Christmas Day 1934, when his late father, Dale, won the second race ever run at the track aboard Let Her Play for owner/trainer H.T. Palmer.

"I love being out here," McAnally said. "It put me where I am, and I tell everybody, 'If you love something you're doing, it's not a job. People sit on the freeway five days a week, and they can't wait till the weekend comes to get a couple of days off.

"I love coming out just watching the horses. I never dreamed I'd be in the Hall of Fame because this was something I liked to do, and my wife always supported me in my work. Behind every successful man is a good woman. She lets me do what I wanted to do."

Asked how long he's been married, McAnally shrugged it off. He has other priorities.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't count the years."