Public Meeting closes 2025 in Frankel Stakes

Hours before the new year, Santa Anita Park will host the final graduated stakes race of 2025: the $100,000 Robert J. Frankel Stakes (G3T) on December 31.

(Editor’s note: Racing at Santa Anita Park has been canceled on Wednesday and January 1 due to heavy rain expected in the area.)

Trainer Phil D’Amato has two of the seven entries for the 1 1/8 mile turf event for fillies and mares: Public Meeting the favorite of the morning line 8-5, and Sun from the hill a 10-1 shot. Both are well drawn inside in a race without pace.

Public Assembly, a 4-year-old More Than Ready filly owned by Abbondanza Racing, McNulty Thoroughbreds and Medallion Racing, is 2-2-0 in seven starts since joining D’Amato’s stable last winter after being acquired by her owners for $225,000 from the 2024 Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age Sale. She won the Royal Heroine Stakes (G3T) in the spring at Santa Anita and was recently second. in the Red Carpet Stakes (G3T) from November 23 at Sea.

That afternoon, two other Frankel Stakes runners finished behind her: CRK Stable’s Paradise Lake who showed 1 1/2 lengths behind Public Assembly; and R Unicorn Stable’s Sun Of Hill, again a neck back in fourth. Paradise Lake, trained by Peter Eurton, is the 2-1 second favorite in the Frankel Stakes, the seventh race on the card.

Earlier Wednesday is the $100,000 Eddie Logan Stakes, where the winner of Amerman Racing’s ranked stakes Strong contrast returns after a last-second finish in the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) at Del Mar for trainer Michael McCarthy.