ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita saved the best for last Saturday – the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap goes as the 12th and final race on an outstanding program. Defunded and Proxy should vie for favoritism in a field of 11 older horses. The 1 1/4-mile Big Cap is the fourth graded stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday and the final leg in a mandatory-payout pick six that began the week with a $214,356 jackpot. Barring a single-ticket winner Friday, the gross pool Saturday could top $3 million. It will not be easy to take down the 20-cent pick six, races 7-12, or find the winner of the four graded stakes. Race 5 is the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes for fillies and mares at one mile over a turf course likely to be wet after nine inches of rain the past week. Quattroelle may go favored. :: Get ready for Santa Anita racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports.  Race 6 is the Grade 2 San Felipe for 3-year-olds, led by National Treasure and impressive last-out maiden winner Skinner. Race 11 is the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile in which Hong Kong Harry will try to cement his reputation as the top turf miler in California. It is true the $500,000 purse of the Big Cap pales compared to the $3 million Pegasus World Cup, $20 million Saudi Cup, and $12 million Dubai World Cup, but this year’s Big Cap field came up attractively deep. Locally based Defunded and Midwest shipper Proxy are Grade 1 winners who finished second and fifth in the Pegasus. Hopper will add blinkers in his second start back from a layoff. Newgrange won a Grade 2 last out. Shipper Warrant finished second in the 2022 Big Cap. There Goes Harvard is a Grade 1 winner. Stilleto Boy is Grade 1-caliber speed. Parnelli, Heywoods Beach, Scarlet Fusion, and Tisquantum also were entered. Bob Baffert, who trains top contenders Defunded and Hopper, and other trainers expressed concerns regarding the fitness of their horses. “A mile and a quarter, and I haven’t been able to train them too much here with this weather,” he said. “They’re doing well, they look great, they look healthy.” Juan Hernandez rides Defunded, whose attributes include proven class, a versatile up-front style, and high speed figures. Hopper, however, is not as exposed. He is a mere Grade 3 winner with two wins from four starts and unlimited upside. Hopper enters the Big Cap off a runner-up finish in a Grade 2, his first start in more than seven months. Baffert said jockey Edwin Maldonado told him Hopper was looking around in his last start, prompting the equipment change for Saturday. Adding blinkers is a late change, not noted on the overnight. “He needed it,” Baffert said of Hopper’s last start. “I think Hopper should like a mile and a quarter. I put a little blinker back on him.” Mike Smith rides Hopper on Saturday. Defunded, Hopper, and Stilleto Boy add pace to the Big Cap field. The more the better for late-runner Proxy, who arrived Tuesday from Fair Grounds. His effort in the Pegasus at Gulfstream was better than his fifth-place finish suggests. “We knew we were up against it on a racetrack that has kind of a speed bias, especially going a mile and an eighth,” trainer Mike Stidham said. “He was climbing really bad down the backside, making up no ground at all.” Proxy finished well, but too late. Proxy, who won the Grade 1 Clark Handicap last November at Churchill Downs, will relish the Big Cap distance, Stidham said. “I’ve been wanting to go a mile and a quarter,” he said. “This is our first chance.” John Velazquez rides Proxy, who could have a condition edge over the locals. While Santa Anita-based horses have had their training interrupted by rain and track closures, Proxy has trained regularly at Fair Grounds. He galloped over the Santa Anita track for the first time Thursday. Newgrange is the only Big Cap entrant who won a dirt stakes last out. He won the Grade 2 San Pasqual under Juan Hernandez, who rides Defunded on Saturday. Newgrange’s new rider is Frankie Dettori. The Big Cap will be the first try for Newgrange at 1 1/4 miles. Based on Newgrange’s post-race appearance following the 1 1/8-mile San Pasqual, trainer Phil D’Amato sees no issue with distance. “I like to gauge my horses after wins, how tired they are,” D’Amato said. “In that last race, he wouldn’t have blown out a match in the winner’s circle.” :: Get Santa Anita Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts at the track. Available every race day.  Dettori got acquainted with Newgrange in a six-furlong workout Feb. 19. Dettori and D’Amato reviewed replays together. Newgrange is a weird horse who sometimes appears to be going nowhere in a race before he finally kicks. “You have to keep pedaling on this horse,” D’Amato said. “He’s just kind of a grinder.” A 4-year-old with five wins from eight starts, Newgrange was purchased at a horses of racing age auction last July for $325,000. D’Amato believes he has room to improve. “I’m thinking that going from 3 to 4, there’s more development in store for him, and hopefully maybe we can make him a Breeders’ Cup horse at year’s end,” D’Amato said. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.