ARCADIA, Calif. – Sunshine is forecasted at Santa Anita on Saturday when racing resumes after a one-week interruption during record rainfall – 10 inches in Arcadia. The weather has cleared, but the aftermath will continue on a Saturday card that includes three Grade 3 stakes. Although the race-8 San Marcos is scheduled for 1 1/4 miles on a saturated turf course, the effect of the storm also will be felt in two stakes on dirt. Sprinters race six furlongs in race 2, the Palos Verdes; fillies race one mile in the Las Virgenes, race 5. While the hope is both stakes will be run on a “fast” surface, a challenge facing horsemen and horseplayers Saturday is to quantify the effect of four days of missed training. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports Santa Anita was closed for training Feb. 4 through Feb. 7, during which time the only exercise horses received was walking on the backstretch, or shed row. Preparation has not been ideal, which is one reason Santa Anita canceled the Friday card with plans to add a day of racing next week, Thursday, Feb. 15. The dirt stakes Saturday are showdowns between trainers Richard Mandella and Bob Baffert. Mandella holds the edge in the Palos Verdes as his Big City Lights faces Baffert’s 2023 Palos Verdes winner Hopkins. In the Las Virgenes, which was postponed from Sunday, Baffert starts 96-Beyer debut winner Kinza and Grade 2 winner Nothing Like You. Mandella sends out Kopion, who is undefeated in two starts. Race 2 is the Palos Verdes, and though Mandella worked Big City Lights six furlongs last Saturday, the 5-year-old’s training was minimal this week due to track closure. “We rode him under the barn quite a bit,” Mandella said. Everyone else is in the same boat. Big City Lights has started eight times and lost to only one horse. Big City Lights has won four races including two stakes; he finished second all four starts against The Chosen Vron. Big City Lights enters the Palos Verdes off a fast allowance victory in which he earned a 98 Beyer. “He’s just a classy horse with a lot of talent,” Mandella said. Big City Lights “has a real kind disposition, very easy to work with.” Big City Lights is a California-bred sired by Mr. Big, and is owned by William Peeples. Flavien Prat rides Big City Lights, who can either set the pace or press from second, which is likely in the Palos Verdes. The horse to catch is Hopkins, the Baffert front-runner seeking his second Palos Verdes victory. Hopkins had been off nearly 10 months when he finished second in a Jan. 19 allowance. A lightly raced 6-year-old with three wins from nine starts, Hopkins normally would be expected to improve second start back. Training this week was not normal. Juan Hernandez rides Hopkins. Others entered include See Through It, who upset Hopkins last out, and supplemental nominees Mystification and The Big Wam. Race 5 Saturday is the Las Virgenes, with five of the six starters that entered when the race was originally scheduled for Feb. 4. Northern California-based Grand Slam Smile did not enter back, but the principals showed up, including the fastest 3-year-old filly in North America. Kinza earned a 96 Beyer winning her debut, the highest by a filly foaled in 2021. If she runs two alike stretching from six furlongs to a mile, Kinza would be the eighth favorite to win the Las Virgenes in the last nine years. Kinza is owned by Michael Lund Petersen, who won the Las Virgenes in 2022 and 2023 with Baffert-trained Adare Manor and Faiza. Hernandez rides Kinza. Baffert also entered Grade 2 Starlet winner Nothing Like You, but the main rival for Kinza is Mandella-trained Kopion. She followed her debut victory with an easy win over three rivals in the Grade 3 Santa Ynez at seven furlongs. She stretches to a mile Saturday. “I think it’s not going to be a problem,” Mandella said. “Her workouts, she’s always got plenty left, so it gives us the feeling that she would like [two turns].” Flavien Prat rides Kopion. Others entered include highly rated maiden winner She’s a Tempest and Great Forty Eight. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.