Santa Anita Oaks Entries Set for April 4 Kentucky Oaks Points Race

The most telling detail about Saturday's $200,000 Santa Anita Oaks presented by Surfside was not the morning-line odds. It was the jockey switch. Juan Hernandez, who rode Forced Entry to a 1¾-length Santa Ysabel Stakes win on March 8, chose Meaning over the Baffert filly for the Grade 2 feature at Santa Anita Park. When a jockey walks away from the horse he just won a graded stakes aboard, the message is hard to miss.

Meaning, the 3-5 morning-line favorite trained by Michael McCarthy for Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, broke from post 5 in the seven-horse field of three-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The Gun Runner filly, purchased for $440,000 at the 2024 Keeneland September sale, had returned from a four-plus month layoff in February to win the Las Virgenes Stakes by 1½ lengths, with the runner-up Explora going on to win the Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn.

Standing between Meaning and the 100 qualifying Kentucky Oaks points on offer was a familiar obstacle: Bob Baffert, who shipped in two fillies as he chased a fourth consecutive Santa Anita Oaks title and sixth overall. His last three editions went to Faiza in 2023, Nothing Like You in 2024, and Tenma in 2025. This time he brought Forced Entry (4-1) and French Blue (5-1), the pair that finished first and third in the Santa Ysabel.

Forced Entry, a bay Charlatan filly out of the stakes winner Violent Times and owned by the Pegram, Watson and Weitman partnership, had announced herself with a 7¼-length maiden romp on Feb. 1 before taking the Santa Ysabel in 1:44.79. French Blue, a Gun Runner filly out of a graded stakes-winning Into Mischief mare, had faded to third in that same Santa Ysabel after dueling on the front end; her ability to handle two turns without wilting remained the defining question for her second attempt at the distance.

Michael McCarthy, who held the favorite, also saddled the 6-1 second choice Brooklyn Blonde from the outside post. The $510,000 Gun Runner filly, owned by restaurateur Bobby Flay and Sun-Kissed Stable, had stretched to a mile for the first time on March 1 and won by 1¼ lengths with Kazushi Kimura up. The McCarthy-Kimura combination entered the race winning at 25% at Santa Anita since the start of 2025.

The rest of the field presented real questions. Bank Shot (20-1), trained by Ryan Hanson, had earned her way into the mix by finishing second in the Santa Ysabel and third in the Las Virgenes, but her ceiling at this level appeared limited. Hypergamy (20-1), Doug O'Neill's American Pharoah filly with Emisael Jaramillo in the irons, made her first career start on dirt after eight turf races. Red Cherry (30-1) for trainer John Sadler, a Rock Your World filly, had broken through on grass in her third start and returned to dirt facing stakes company for the first time.

The points structure gave the race its national weight. The winner collected 100 qualifying points toward the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs on May 1, with 50, 25, 15, and 10 points distributed through fifth place. Race 6 carried a 5:30 p.m. ET post time, with a $126,000 winner's share of the $200,000 purse in play.