Fiji Leads the Entries for Yellow Ribbon Stakes

Next year, the Breeders’ Cup will add an eighth event, a turf race for fillies and mares.

Until then, the two main events at the end of the year for female grass performers remain the $500,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes, which will be run Sunday at Santa Anita, and the $700,000 Matriarch, which comes up three weeks later at Hollywood Park.

Fiji, the leading candidate for the Eclipse award as the top female turf performer, is among 10 fillies and mares entered Friday morning in the Yellow Ribbon, which is run at 1 1/4 miles.

Owned by Prince Fahd Salman and trained by Neil Drysdale, the 4-year-old Rainbow Quest filly, who has won five of six races this year, will be making her first start since finishing third as the 2-5 favorite in the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 1.

Fiji carried top weight of 125 pounds that day, but she and all the other older runners will carry 122, and 3-year-olds, among them Tenski, who has won graded stakes in Kentucky and New York, will carry 118.

From the rail out, the others in the field are Tresoriere, Winona, Real Connection, Pomona, See You Soon, Sonja’s Faith, Squeak and Ellakapella.

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Horse Racing Notes

Gates will open at 7:45 a.m. today at Santa Anita and post time for the first live race will be 9:25. The first of the Breeders’ Cup races, the Juvenile, will begin at 10:25. . . . Charlie Whittingham, the Hall of Fame trainer, was admitted to a Pasadena hospital Wednesday night with pneumonia, according to his son, Michael. Whittingham, 85, had a 104-degree temperature when he was admitted, but his condition was said to have improved. . . . There is a Pick Six carry-over at Santa Anita of more than $237,000 for Sunday. A Pick Six won’t be offered on the local races today because of the Breeders’ Cup $5-million guaranteed Pick Six.