A big gate-to-wire one-mile turf winner in his previous start, trainer Leonard Powell’s Air Force Red employed identical tactics on Saturday at Santa Anita as he shortened up to about 6 ½ furlongs over the hillside turf course, taking the $250,000 Joe Hernandez Stakes (G2) by 1 ¾ lengths.
Millionaire Santin, who ships in from Kentucky to try his luck in the $250,000 Seabiscuit Handicap (G2) Saturday, looms as the one to beat in the nine-horse lineup for the Thanksgiving weekend headliner at Del Mar.