SANTA ANITA - MEMORIAL DAY 2026
Memorial Day on 25th May served up a superb card at Santa Anita with a pair of Grade 1 races on the turf and the Hollywood Gold Cup. Here is a review of the TPD data from the feature races;
Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes (G2)
There are unlikely to be too many horses in 2026 who win a Stakes race for the first time on their 18th career start. FORGED STEEL had tried before and come up short, but he has now won 3 of his last 4 starts and looks to be finally delivering on his earlier promise. This perhaps wasn’t the deepest G2 race. The horses that chased him home have records of 2-10 and 2-14 respectively and this race perhaps lacked the glamour that a $126,000 first prize might bring. However, that should not detract from a superb front running display from Saffie Joseph’s charge, who controlled the race from the moment that the gates opened. Opening furlongs of 12.21 and 11.09s gave him the fastest opening quarter of a mile and allowed Flavien Prat to hold the inside rail and dictate his own fractions from that point onwards. The pace was maintained from the first turn and as can be seen from our data infographic below, Forged Steel was the fastest horse in the field, ultimately going on to record the fastest furlong time for each of the last 4 splits as he ran out a very comfortable winner. Recording the biggest winning margin in the Hollywood Gold Cup since it was switched to Santa Anita in 2014, Forged Steel has suddenly announced himself as a graded performer. His trainer has won the last 2 renewals of this race, having also landed the prize with Skippylongstocking 12-months ago. The data collected by TPD would suggest that this wasn’t a fluke and having run a winning time of 2:01.58, the fastest winning time since Accelerate in 2018 and the 2nd fastest since the switch to Santa Anita, Forged Steel set decent fractions on the front end. The big question is whether he can now repeat this effort against better opposition next time. Stall 1 clearly helped and having recorded an average stride length (24.49 ft) that was within a few centimetres of the TPD average for a winner of this race, he was given an ideal setup on Memorial Day. He is highly likely to need to improve again if he doesn’t get the same set of perfect circumstances next time.
Gamely Stakes (G1)
The Hollywood Gold Cup may have been run at a fast pace, but the switch to the turf for the G1 Gamely Stakes saw a far more tactical affair as THOUGHT PROCESS and Rashmi controlled the pace from the moment they stepped on to the Santa Anita turf. This was a very controlled stalking ride from Hector Berrios aboard the well-backed favourite, who has now won 7 of her 10 career starts and maintained a perfect 4-4 record at Santa Anita. Never more than 0.3s behind the leader, Thought Process sat perfectly behind Rashmi in a race where the pace lifted with 3 furlongs to run as the front pair were able to kick from the lead as they rounded the final turn. In a race where the entire field recorded a finishing speed above 100%, Thought Process enjoyed the ideal racing position throughout and it is testament to the judgement of Hector Berrios that she was able to win her first G1 race despite the fact that she failed to run the fastest individual furlong split at any point of the race. Thought Process still recorded a race best late speed of 39.5 mph as she maintained a stride frequency above her race average figure of 2.28 per second for each of the final 3 furlongs. Her trainer, Philip D Amato said after the race that the long term plan is to run her in the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mare Turf at Keeneland at the end of the year. Taking on the European turf horses will be a difficult task and as our race summary shows, there was very little between these runners and her prominent racing position was a clear advantage. Of those in behind, the 3rd placed Take A Breath was probably the horse to note as she ran on with a race best 11.36s for the final furlong and run-out speed of 38.3 mph. She has already won a pair of G3 races this year and having been further back than ideal, I think it is worth noting that she was quicker than the winner in 3 of the last 4 furlongs. Her turn may yet come in G1 company.
We shouldn’t take too much away from Thought Process. She won this race with a superb turn-of-foot as she clocked 11.24s for the penultimate furlong at a race peak stride frequency of 2.39 strides per second. She deserves this G1 success and remains one of the best fillies on the turf in the US. However, I can’t shake the feeling that this race set up perfectly and the Breeders’ Cup is likely to require further improvement.
Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1)
Flavien Prat had to work much harder to win the Shoemaker Mile aboard FORMIDABLE MAN than he did earlier in the day aboard Forged Steel in the Hollywood Gold Cup. Sent off at cramped odds of 7-10, Formidable Man sat behind the early pace before being driven to the front by coming 3 wide around the final turn. Once straightened for home, the son of City of Light increased his average stride length from 7.45m in the 7th to 7.59m in the final furlong. Much like Thought Process 60 minutes earlier, Formidable Man did not run a race best split for any of the 8 furlongs of this G1 contest and as you can see from the TPD data below, he didn’t rank particularly highly for any of the race speed metrics. However, whilst there were others with higher individual speed figures at certain points of the race, at the key point when the pace lifted around the far turn, Formidable Man reached a race peak stride frequency of 2.33 strides per second as he recorded 6th and 7th furlong splits that both ranked in the top 3. At an average of 24.98 ft, he recorded a shorter stride than the 2 horses who chased him home, but he is one of those horses who finds a way to win and has now won 9 of his 16 career starts on the turf. Only 4th in this race last year, he has certainly improved and recorded a perfect 100% finishing speed to win this prize for his trainer Michael McCarthy.
