Santa Anita owner steals spotlight

Santa Anita will host its best weekend of racing Saturday since the Breeders’ Cup. However, you wouldn’t know it if you listened to track owner Frank Stronach’s recent comments.

The Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks, Kilroe Mile, Santa Anita Handicap and the Sham, an intriguing Kentucky Derby prep, make for a solid mix of stakes. But Stronach this week stole the spotlight.

His comments about industry deregulation, status quo for his synthetic main track that won’t drain when it rains and a horse racing business model that he said is broken have taken the headlines.

It’s not easy being Santa Anita president Ron Charles, marketing director Allen Gutterman or publicity director Mike Willman when your boss essentially is working against you. Instead of promoting a great day of racing, they are spending more time putting out fires.

Regardless, Stronach, who bought Santa Anita in 1998 and entered racetrack ownership as a breath of fresh air, now smells more like bad breath.

As for the Santa Anita product, we have endured many bad racing programs lately, so we can enjoy a quality Saturday card.

The Big Cap is an interesting 14-horse renewal despite the absence of the top four handicap horses in training: Gio Ponti, Quality Road, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. St. Trinians, a 5-year-old mare from trainer Mike Mitchell, will garner a lot of support. For an upsetter, I’ll peg Jeranimo, who won the Strub last out. Rafael Bejarano takes the call, which tells me the horse is legit.

The grassy Kilroe figures to be another difficult handicapping puzzle. For a price, take a look at Proviso from trainer Bill Mott. Mott is 0-for-15 at the meet, but this mare appears poised for a top effort returning to turf.

The Santa Anita Oaks has an obvious choice in Blind Luck. She was all out to overcome a slow pace in the Las Virgenes. Expect Bejarano to put her into the race sooner so she won’t have to work so hard.

The Sham is a must win for any colt with serious hopes of running in the Derby. Seven of 10 starters won their last races, and the $90,000 winner’s share of graded earnings is important. The colt I like is The Program, who is basically a second-stringer for trainer Bob Baffert.

■ SOUTH POINT — The South Point Six progressive carry-over was not won Thursday. The contest carry-over has grown to $8,830.

Rich Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.