ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — Twirling Candy defeated Smiling Tiger by a nose to win the $250,000 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds on opening day of Santa Anita’s winter meet on Sunday.
Trainer John Sadler won three of the four stakes on the card, including the Malibu.
Ridden by Joel Rosario, Twirling Candy ran seven furlongs on Santa Anita’s new dirt surface in 1:19.70 and paid $9, $5.40 and $4.
Smiling Tiger returned $6 and $4, while Caracortado was another 312 lengths back in third and paid $5.60 to show.
The track was hit with 1414 inches of rain during the previous nine days leading up to opening day, but there were no problems with the new dirt surface. It replaced two previous synthetic surfaces that had drainage problems.
