Trainer Dan Blacker capped 2024 with graded stakes wins from MyRacehorse’s Straight No Chaser in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (G2) and Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1)—fall victories that vaulted the horse to a championship as the Eclipse Award-winning male sprinter of last year.
A month into 2025, Blacker is back winning graded stakes in California, this time with My Way Racing’s El Potente , who blitzed a mile on firm turf at Santa Anita Park in 1:32.39 in taking the $102,000 Thunder Road Stakes (G3T) Feb. 1. The victory was the second of the new year in as many starts for El Potente, a former maiden claimer whose career turned around when Blacker moved him from dirt to turf.
Like Straight No Chaser, Blacker credits patience for El Potente’s success. The Temple City horse did not race for more than nine months when sidelined from Aug. 19, 2023, until June 8, 2024. He has gone 3-for-5 since, with his three victories during this period all with Hector Berrios in the saddle. The Thunder Road win was the 6-year-old horse’s first in a stakes race. He paid $5 to win.
El Potente delivered a career-best performance Saturday, winning by three lengths over a ground-saving Seal Team , who had broken through the gate before the start and needed to be reloaded. Air Force Red , who established the pace with fractions of :22.63, :46.17, and 1:09.43, showed.
“I think a lot of credit goes to Hector,” Blacker said. “He really gets (El Potente) to switch off, and he runs for him, too.”
Bred in Florida by Charmsil out of the Silver Charm mare Charmsil, El Potente, a dark bay or brown son of Temple City, was a $35,000 purchase by McMahon and Hill Bloodstock, agent, in 2021 from the Nice and Easy Thoroughbreds consignment at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales June 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale.
Temple City, who stands this year for $5,000 at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky, has sired such high-class turf runners as Annals of Time , Miss Temple City , and Du Jour .
Video: Thunder Road S. (G3T)
Rashmi Continues California Love Affair
An hour before El Potente’s victory, class-dropping Rashmi also broke through at the stakes level with a decisive victory as the favorite in the $101,000 Megahertz Stakes (G3T) for older fillies and mares going a mile on the turf. Indicative of the speed of El Potente’s Thunder Road win, her time of 1:34.19 was almost two seconds slower.
A homebred 4-year-old daughter of Oscar Performance for George Strawbridge Jr.’s Augustin Stable, she prevailed by 2 1/2 lengths over runner-up Mahina . Liguria was third.
Frankie Dettori was aboard the winner for trainer Jonathan Thomas. Rashmi pressed early fractions of :22.95, :46.77, and 1:10.82 set by Omaha Girl before taking over the lead and asserting her superiority.
She improved to 4-1-1 in eight starts with earnings of $150,736. Before Saturday’s race, she had been fourth in the Dec. 26 American Oaks (G1T) at Santa Anita. The American Oaks followed a pair of victories going a mile on turf at Del Mar in the fall.
“She has really taken to California,” Thomas said.
Rashmi ($5.80) is the second graded stakes winner of 2025 for Oscar Performance after Dashman ‘s triumph in the Jan. 25 William L. McKnight Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park. Oscar Performance stands in Kentucky for $45,000 at Mill Ridge Farm.
