Sham Stakes begins road to Santa Anita Derby

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Arcadia, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Santa Anita Park's road to the $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 4 begins with Saturday's $100,000 Sham Stakes at a mile.

Getting the nod in the eight-horse field as the 8-5 morning line favorite is trainer Peter Miller's Calculator, owned by Richard Pell. The 3-year-old gray colt will break from post 7 with jockey Elvis Trujillo.

Winless in four starts, Calculator is coming off a pair of runner-up performances behind Eclipse Award finalist American Pharoah. He was second in the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 3 and 24 days later in the FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita.

"The horse ran super. I'm really happy with the way he ran. The winner got an easy lead with a slow pace," Miller said after the FrontRunner.

Calculator finished third in his career debut at Del Mar on July 19 and fourth three weeks later on Del Mar's synthetic main track. The colt has earned $133,500.

Leaving from post 3 will be Rockinatten the 7-2 second pick. The gelding, trained by Doug O'Neill, will have Rafael Bejarano in the saddle for the first time.

"He's doing really well and I really like him," Bejarano said.

Rockinatten, partly owned by Bada Beng Racing, broke his maiden in his third start on Oct. 26 at Gulfstream Park West, formerly Calder. The gelding was second and third, respectively, in his first two career starts at Gulfstream Park.

"Hopefully, we can put the horse in the major leagues. The timing is right to try and see if we have another I'll Have Another or Goldencents," said Leandro Mora, assistant to Doug O?Neill.

The 4-1 third choice is Hero Ten All, trained by Jeff Mullins for Edward K. Gaylord II. The colt will have Tyler Baze riding for the first time with the pair breaking from the far outside post.

Hero Ten All had Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel in the saddle for both career starts, getting second at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 and winning at Los Alamitos Dec. 7.

Here is the complete field for the Sham Stakes in post position order: St. Joe Bay, Martin Pedroza, 8-1; Pioneerof the West, Corey Nakatani, 12-1; Rockinatten, Rafael Bejarano, 7-2; Unblunted, Joe Talamo, 6-1; Rock Shandy, Victor Espinoza, 8-1; Papacoolpapacool, Fernando Perez, 8-1; Calculator, Elvis Trujillo, 8-5; and Hero Ten All, Tyler Baze, 4-1.

Post time for the Sham will be approximately 6 p.m. ET.