Ultimate Eagle sent as the favourite as the last year’s runner-up Setsuko the second favourite for the Santa Anita Handicap
The $750,000 Big Cap’s odds are in, and the Santa Anita’s oddsmaker, Jon White, had to do some soul searching with Game on Dude out of the lineup to come up with the favourite for today’s massive 1 ¼ mile race on dirt, and with the main protagonist not participating
White is of the view that Ultimate Eagle is by and large the 5 to 2 morning line favourite for the race.
He didn’t stop there as he is going farther than usual as he considers the 7-year-old gelded son of Street Cry, Holladay Road very dangerous and the dark horse of the race, as he attains the possibility of spurring up a surprise, hence the odds of 8 to 1
morning line price.
The Julio C. Canani trained gelding has been dwelling in starter allowances and allowance/optional claimers company since 2009, but recently tasted stakes company in 2011 at Santa Anita in the Cal Cup Classic over the venue’s turf course and finished a strong
third on the day to winner Norvsky and second place finisher Lucky Primo in the 1 1/8 mile long event.
Out of mare Blending Element by Great Commotion, Holladay Road will be running for his hat-trick in the Santa Anita Handicap after exiting back to back wins.
He posted his first victory in an allowance test over turf at Hollywood Park over a distance of 1 1/16 miles on 10 December, 2011, and kicked off the new campaign with his first stakes race win in the Crystal Water Stakes also at 1 1/16 miles, but this time
over the Santa Anita’s fast dirt track, where the Santa Anita Handicap will be contested on.
Jon White revealed that if Game on Dude was participating to make it a field of 14, he would’ve sent him as the 9 to 5 favourite to win the race.
Setsuko on the other hand is coming into the race new and improved as he turned in his 2012 debut as a gelding for the first time and won, and many people are expecting him to do much better as a gelding.
With the right equipment, he is sent as the second favourite on the morning line.
Everything is set, and the race will get underway shortly, the odds are in and the field of 13 is ready to burst out of the gate and go the long distance in the greatest sport event in California sport history.
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