Santa Anita Names Stakes After American Pharoah

Santa Anita Park released its stakes schedule for its fall meet that begins Sept. 28 and in the process also announced it will rename one of its grade 1 races after Triple Crown winner American Pharoah .

On Sept. 29, the Arcadia, Calif., racetrack will run the $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes (G1) for 2-year-olds. The race was previously run as the FrontRunner Stakes from 2012-2017 and before that was named the Norfolk Stakes. The Bob Baffert-trained American Pharoah won the 1 1/16-mile race in 2014 for owner Zayat Stables.

LAMARRA: American Pharoah Easy Winner of FrontRunner

"It's really an honor to have Santa Anita name this race for him," Baffert said. "He trained at Santa Anita, and following the FrontRunner in 2014, he obviously went on to do some great things. Hopefully, some of his babies will have the opportunity to run in this race in the years to come."

The fall meet will be highlighted by a total of 26 stakes run over the course of its 22 days of racing, including seven Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" Challenge Races, six of which are grade 1. Four of those races will be run Sept. 29, with another Sept. 30. Two additional Breeders' Cup Challenge races, the $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1) and the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes, will be run Oct. 6.

                    

For the first time, Santa Anita will also be offering a limited number of five-furlong turf races, beginning with the Speakeasy for 2-year-olds. The Speakeasy will serve as a "Win and You're In" prep for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.

Two other stakes will be run at five furlongs on turf—the $100,000 California Distaff for California-bred or sired fillies and mares Oct. 13 and the $100,000 California Flag for California-bred or sired 3-year-olds and older Oct. 20.

The 2018 fall meet also marks the return of six stakes: the $200,000 Golden State Juvenile Fillies (Nov. 2), the $70,000 Lure Stakes (Nov. 2), the $100,000 Senator Ken Maddy Stakes (G3T, Nov. 3), the $200,000 Golden State Juvenile (Nov. 3), the $200,000 Goldikova Stakes (G2T, Nov. 4), and the $200,000 Twilight Derby (G2T, Nov. 4). Because of a shortened season in 2017, all six of those races were run at Del Mar, which hosted the 2017 Breeders' Cup.

One additional change is the return of the $200,000 City of Hope Mile (G2T), which was most recently run at Santa Anita in 2016.

Santa Anita's complete stakes schedule is now available at santaanita.com/stakes-schedule.