Epical Victorious as Racing Resumes at Santa Anita

After 26 days filled with proposals, fatalities, regulations, open letters, medications, whips, meetings, and groundskeeping, the Southern California racing community came together March 29 and returned to the work that has been its livelihood.

On a bright, sunny day that fueled optimism for better days ahead, racing resumed at Santa Anita Park for the first time since March 3 with an eight-race card.

Shuttered due to the 22 equine fatalities since December, Santa Anita was home to a day that had many holding their breath, mindful of the horrific winter, but it unfolded in an uneventful manner with racing back on center stage.

"The regulars were here today, and they were happy that we were back and running," said Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of The Stronach Group. "It's hard to get excited about being back when we had such a bad run of catastrophic injuries. It wasn't like we went out and marketed and said come on back here. We want to make sure some of these new initiatives that we're rolling out are the right things."

The $200,000 San Luis Rey Stakes (G2T) highlighted the card, with DP Racing's Epical controlling the pace in a small field of five—after the late scratch of Risky Proposition—and prevailing by 2 1/4 lengths in the 1 1/2-mile turf contest. The win gave jockey Tyler Baze his fifth victory in the marathon turf stakes.

Trained by James Cassidy, the favored Epical posted his first graded stakes win after overcoming gate trouble to finish second in the San Marcos Stakes (G2T) in his previous start.

Baze put Epical on the lead at the break, and, while being tracked by longshot Marckie's Water, he cruised along through fractions of :24:47, :48.56, and 1:13.41 through six furlongs before pulling away on the final turn and opening a safe three-length lead in midstretch.

"He's a special horse," said Baze, who won the two previous editions of the San Luis Rey with Itsinthepost. "I knew he was something all long."

The winner returned $4.20 to win and $2.40 to place. Beach View rallied from last in the field of five to edge Marckie's Water for second by a half-length and paid $$2.80 and $2.40. The final time for the 12 furlongs was 2:24.60.

"The first time Tyler got on him, he said this horse would run three miles," Cassidy said. "(Epical's) not the kind who gets rattled when another runs alongside him. He's very kind.

"I would just hope that for the rest of the meet everything goes like this," Cassidy added. "Believe me, they're doing everything. They're going over the top with everything they can possibly do to prevent anything from happening. We're all here to protect the horses as best we can. We've had struggles before. This group of people here are resilient.

"(Track maintenance consultant Dennis Moore) has done a fabulous job with the track. We don't have the rain. They're checking horses like they were newborns."

A 4-year-old Uncle Mo  gelding bred in Kentucky by Jamm Limited out of the Deputy Minister mare Klondike Hills, Epical was purchased for $205,000 at The October Sale in 2016. Later he failed to meet his reserve on a final bid of $145,000 at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

Epical boosted his record to 4-2-1 from 11 starts, with earnings of $279,980.

Video: San Luis Rey S. (G2T)

After the day's races, Ritvo spoke about the changes that track officials and The Stronach Group implemented prior to reopening the Southern California track. 

"I think the new normal is a change," he said. "It's a change in how we do business, a change in how we look at this. Belinda (Stronach) has made it clear that eventually all tracks (owned by The Stronach Group) will be under stronger scrutiny, that the status quo of the past isn't acceptable anymore. 

"We have to do everything we can to try to protect the interest of the horse first. She tells me if we protect the interest of the horse first, we may have short-term losses in business, but we'll have long-term gains in sustainability in the industry.

"We look at customers, basically everyday people who understand our game, and then we have the public, which is the outside bubble. We're starting to look more and more at the outside bubble to make sure that we are watching and listening to what they're concerned about because even if they're not fans, they're the ones that will go to Sacramento and they're the ones that will come out and vote and end our sport. There's more of them than we have customers, unfortunately. We need to do a really good job of trying to get into that outside bubble and tell people the truth of how people really love and care for these horses."