The Chosen Vron Headlines California Gold Rush Day

Before Santa Anita Park stages five graded stakes races May 26-27, topped by Monday's Gamely Stakes (G1T) and Shoemaker Mile (G1T), the racing emphasis is on California-breds May 25.

Five stakes worth $100,000 or more are on tap Saturday, California Gold Rush Day. The races are over a variety of distances and conditions.

Among them is West Coast star The Chosen Vron —whose only defeat over his last 13 starts, a stretch dating back to September 2022, came when he ran fifth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) last fall. Winner of the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1) last summer at Del Mar and the Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita last out, he is 17-for-22 overall for trainer Eric Kruljac and goes for a repeat victory in the $100,000 Thor's Echo Stakes, a race he emphatically took in 2023.

Kruljac co-owns the 6-year-old Vronsky gelding with Sondereker Racing, Robert Fetkin, and Richard Thornburgh. Hector Berrios rides. Four foes—Sawasdee , Big City Lights , Moose Mitchell , and California Tiger —are entered against the rail-drawn heavy favorite in the day's third race.

Grand Slam Smile Favored in First Start Since January

The $125,000 Melair Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile test for 3-year-old fillies on the main track, marks the first start in more than four months for Grand Slam Smile , a stakes winner on both dirt and turf for trainer Northern California-based trainer Steve Specht.

Following a dominant win Jan. 13 in the Leigh Ann Howard California Cup Oaks on turf at Santa Anita, Specht pondered starting her in the Las Virgenes Stakes (G3) on dirt before opting to give her a break when that race was postponed due to inclement weather.

The Smiling Tiger   filly has worked six times since early April, which includes a pair of six-furlong works and a mile breeze. This past weekend, she sped five furlongs in a bullet :58 4/5 at Golden Gate Fields.

"She's as fit as possible," Specht said. "That mile work she had was really good. She finished strong."

The Melair will be her first race beyond a mile for the two-time stakes winner on Santa Anita's main track. She previously won the Golden State Juvenile Fillies Stakes at seven furlongs on dirt in November and the Fasig-Tipton Debutante Stakes at five furlongs in June.

"Every time we come down here, it's a new experience for her," Specht said. "Dirt, turf, short, long. But I think she'll handle the added distance. In the Oaks, it looked like they were going to run by her but she took off again."

In later racing action:

• Kings River Knight  leads the Crystal Water Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at a mile on turf.
• Tam's Little Angel  heads south from Northern California for the Fran's Valentine Stakes for fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, over the same trip.
• Curlin's Kaos  competes in the $125,000 Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on turf.