Thoroughbred racing fixes its followers in time. For that reason, I know exactly where I’ve been on certain days in early March for so long it’s embarrassing to mention. One hates to be predictable.

But there I was on the gloomy afternoon of March 9, 1975, watching Stardust Mel and Out of the East leaning on each other through a Santa Anita Park quagmire to the end of an interminable mile and one-quarter. A vindictive storm rose up on the afternoon of March 2, 1980, as I huddled in the upper reaches of the grandstand, under meager shelter, to witness Spectacular Bid shrug off the driving rain and Flying Paster.

It was a very different scene March 6, 1988, when only four horses answered the bell on a perfect, late winter day. Then again, they were the best four older horses on the grounds, so we had that going for us, and Alysheba and Ferdinand were two of them. The world turned a few times and another March 6 came around in 1999, when for some reason I found myself at the starting gate as the two grays, Free House and Silver Charm, eyed each other for the last time in their long-running pas de deux.

All those moments are not lost in time, thank goodness, because the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) is more than a horse race. The Santa Anita Handicap is the reason there is a Santa Anita at all. And no matter how far it has fallen in purse value and perceived prestige, when the race is run again on Saturday—March 1 this time around—winning the Santa Anita Handicap could be the best thing any of the horses in the field of nine will be remembered for.

Saturday should be a good day at the races, with the card jam-packed with stakes action. Eastern invaders Locked  and Hit Show  give the Handicap some exotic panache that recent runnings have lacked. It has been eight years since Jimmy Jerkens brought Shaman Ghost   from far away to beat the classy local Midnight Storm  . Before than, Helen Pitts and Einstein came West in 2009 to give Bobby Frankel and Champs Elysees a hard time.

This time around, in the 88th Santa Anita Handicap, the invading pair appears to overlay the field on form and figures. Locked, by Gun Runner  , is a real grinder for Todd Pletcher who seems sculpted for 1 1/4 miles, while Hit Show, by Candy Ride  , has arrived at his 5-year-old season for Brad Cox as the winner of four of his last five well-spaced starts.

So who will be third? They’ve all got a shot. Even the 6-year-old gelding Midnight Mammoth , who will be making his 34th start, the last 16 for owner Jeffrey Sengara and trainer Craig Dollase. His coat is dark bay and his collar is decidedly blue, but stranger things have happened in the Handicap, and if you don’t think so, google Martial Law, Herat, or a horse named The Field, who finished third in 1971 to future Hall of Famers Ack Ack and Cougar II at 96-1.

Midnight Mammoth began life as a 2-year-old at Del Mar with Bob Baffert, but he could not nail down a maiden win until February of his 3-year-old season, by then with Steve Sherman at Golden Gate Fields. Dollase dropped in a successful $50,000 claim for Midnight Mammoth in March of 2023.

Sengara, of British Columbia, is best known as the owner of Budroyale, runner-up in the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Gulfstream Park and, even more importantly to the Sengara clan, winner that same year of the Longacres Mile Handicap (G3) at Emerald Downs. The Dollase family is well known in California training circles, including Craig’s sisters, Michele and Aimee. Their father, the late Wally Dollase, trained champions Itsallgreektome and Jewel Princess and won the Travers Stakes (G1) twice.

To be fair, Midnight Mammoth enters the Handicap off two 2025 efforts that no one would write home about. The son of Midnight Lute  came off five months on the sidelines to be run off his feet chasing sprinters at Turf Paradise, then got boiled alive on a hot pace in the San Pasqual Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Jan. 25. In both races, jockey Armando Ayuso wisely geared down when all was lost.

“He was in real good form last summer, but then we had a setback with him and he’s taken a little while to come back around,” Dollase said.

In fact, Midnight Mammoth was in very good form last spring and summer, rattling off consecutive wins at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos Race Course before making a 10 1/4-length mockery of the mile and one-half Cougar II Stakes (G3) at Del Mar. His return this year at Turf Paradise was supposed to be a layup. Instead, he beat one horse, far behind a winning time of 1:14.37 for 6 1/2 furlongs.

“I’m still trying to figure that one out,” Dollase said. “I was trying to be a smart guy and go beat up on some lesser horses over there. But was I ever wrong. My god, they ran fast that day, and he just couldn’t keep up. I think he got a little discouraged. I told the owner he came out of the race with a bruised ego.

“Then he just wasn’t quite ready for that last race here, when he got dueled on the lead between horses,” the trainer added. “But he’s come back to work really well since then. We’re hoping his third race off the layoff will be his best. It will have to be.”

Memories of Affirmed, Wolfson

The purse for the 2025 Santa Anita Handicap is $300,000. The purse for the 1979 Santa Anita Handicap was $312,800. My handy inflation calculator tells me that $312,000 in 1979 would get you $1.4 million in goods and services today. Go figure.

Those of us lucky enough to be at Santa Anita March 4, 1979, for the 42nd running of the Santa Anita Handicap were happily distracted from the prize money by the performance of Affirmed, the reigning Horse of the Year and Triple Crown winner of 1978. All he did that day was win by 4 1/2 lengths under 128 pounds and Laffit Pincay Jr. while setting a stakes record of 1:58 3/5 in a race that had been won by Seabiscuit, Noor, Round Table, Hill Rise, and Lucky Debonair.

There were many days devoted to Affirmed, morning and afternoon, each one cherished in the moment, no hindsight required. He was a horse who turned racing into an art form, an alchemy achieved only by certain special individuals. And each time he ran, there was a nod of gratitude saved for Patrice and Louis Wolfson, who brought Affirmed into this life.

Affirmed died Jan. 12, 2001. “The end of an era,” said Patrice Wolfson through her tears that day. Over the ensuing years, she maintained a shrine to her horse in her Long Island, N.Y., home, welcoming guests as appreciative pilgrims who knew the catechism of Affirmed by heart: 29 starts over 29 months, 22 wins and record earnings, a string of his first 18 races during which he finished behind another horse only twice, and that horse was Alydar.

Affirmed was foaled Feb. 21, 1975. Patrice Wolfson died in her Florida home Feb. 25, 2025. We’ll never get a half century like theirs again.