A Barrage of Stakes to End Oak Tree Meet

There’s no stakes activity at Santa Anita today, but the Oak Tree Racing Assn. will close its season this weekend with a barrage of rich races:

--Saturday, Santa Anita will play host to the first California Cup, seven races worth $1 million for California-bred horses.

--Sunday, the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes will likely have a bearing on the Eclipse Award for fillies and mares on grass.

--And Monday, the meeting will end with the Carleton F. Burke Handicap, a $200,000 grass race.

Hollywood Park’s fall season begins a week from today.

The highlight of California Cup day will be the $300,000 Classic, at 1 1/8 miles. The other races are the $150,000 Sprint, Distaff and Mile; the $100,000 Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies, and the $50,000 Starter Handicap. The Distaff and the Mile are on grass.

Petite Ile and Foresta are among the 10 horses expected to run in the Yellow Ribbon, won last year by Brown Bess, who was later voted the Eclipse Award as the country’s best female grass runner. Brown Bess was recently retired because of injury.

Petite Ile has had her problems, too, not having run since winning the Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park in July. She is on a three-race win streak and has been training well after recovering from a leg injury.

Foresta is a well-traveled daughter of Alydar who won the $300,000 All Along Stakes at Laurel, Md., on Oct. 21. That victory, her fifth in 10 starts this year, boosted the 4-year-old filly’s career earnings to almost $500,000.

Post positions for the California Cup races will be drawn tonight at Santa Anita.