ARCADIA — After Santa Anita’s winter-spring season came to an eventful end Sunday, it’s hard to know where to begin.
• Umberto Rispoli had a closing day to remember by riding six winners, one short of Hall of Famer Laffit Pincay Jr.’s 1987 record of seven on a single card at 90-year-old Santa Anita.
• Doug O’Neill saddled two winners on the final card to reach 3,000 lifetime victories in North America, becoming only the 24th trainer to achieve that milestone.
• Antonio Fresu clinched his first outright jockeys title since he began riding in the United States in 2023, finishing the Hollywood Meet portion of the Santa Anita season with 34 wins to 30 for Juan Hernandez, who had led the standings at seven straight winter-spring and fall meets in Arcadia.
• Phil D’Amato added to his success at Santa Anita by capping his sixth training title in the past 12 meets and seventh overall there, finishing with 27 wins to runner-up John Sadler’s 20 at the Hollywood Meet.
• Nitti and jockey Armando Ayuso rallied from last for a $12 upset in the marathon San Juan Capistrano Stakes for trainer Leonard Powell.
“I think this is my greatest day, so I’m just happy,” Ayuso said after the 31-year-old from Panama made the historic San Juan Capistrano his most prestigious stakes win.
Normally, the $100,000, Grade III San Juan Capistrano’s about 1¾ miles of twists and turns and ups and downs on the hillside turf course, is the headline on the last day of the Santa Anita season that opens on Dec. 26.
It was upstaged this time.
Rispoli, whose teamwork with Santa Anita Derby winner Journalism was among the highlights of the season, became the 16th jockey to ride six winners in a day at Santa Anita, the first since Frankie Dettori did it in April 2024.
Rispoli lost his mount in the San Juan Capistrano when Mrs. Astor was scratched, but cashed in six of his nine chances on the 12-race card, including Bad Uncle Berry at $21.60 in the 11th. Rispoli had a shot to tie Pincay’s record when he rode 12-1 Uptown Preacher in the nightcap, but never got close to the lead and finished off the board.
This was also a huge day for Fresu, who is Italian like Rispoli.
“Since I moved over here, I’ve been close a couple of times to win (a track) title, and you kind of let it go for a while,” said Fresu, who tied with Tiago Pereira for the most wins at the Los Alamitos thoroughbred meet last December. “Now it just feels a little nicer.”
D’Amato gave credit to his late mentor Mike Mitchell and others – including barn staff members Rudy Cruz, Euriel Mejia, Mary Donald and Adolfo Espinoza – after clinching the trainers’ title on Saturday and adding wins with favored Cuban Confusion and Miss Meagher on Sunday.
“You’re only as good as your team,” D’Amato said.
O’Neill, 57, saddled his 2,999th North American winner when Pavlovian and Rispoli came from behind in the sixth, and then got his 3,000th with his last horse of the Santa Anita season when Hero Or Zero – and Rispoli again – stayed in front in the eighth.
O’Neill said it was special to do it at his home track and with a horse owned by Paul Reddam, with whom he won the Kentucky Derby with I’ll Have Another (2012) and Nyquist (2016).
“It does make you realize how lucky you are,” O’Neill said.
Santa Anita didn’t release end-of-season statistics on attendance and betting handle, but an executive said the track plans to do that Monday.
By unofficial count, the 78 days of racing at Santa Anita since Dec. 26 saw one horse die in competition, Dont Fight the Fed having been euthanized after sustaining a metacarpal fracture and falling with jockey Mario Gutierrez during the San Pasqual Stakes on Jan. 25. That’s the fewest deaths in races during this span of dates since the California Horse Racing Board began posting horse deaths on its website in 2020.
But fatalities overall at Santa Anita numbered eight because seven horses died in training, six attributed to musculoskeletal injuries and one to a non-musculoskeletal cause. The total is in line with the eight, nine and eight the past three years and lower than the two years before that.
Los Alamitos begins a three-week thoroughbred season Friday, followed by Del Mar’s eight-week summer meet starting July 18.
Santa Anita’s fall season opens Sept. 26.
