The gift that keeps on giving in California every year is the Santa Anita meet which starts the day after Christmas and horse bettors can expect speed, speed, and more speed to be much in play this season.

The Pro-Ride surface held up well during the Oak Tree meet, only time will tell, but the projection from this corner is that the surface will play relatively fair.

At Oak Tree, lone speed had an advantage but it does on every surface. If they went too fast early during the fall stand, horses could come from pretty far back and nail the speed.

Often, and this was pretty much the status quo, there was no bias in terms of path or even style on either the Pro-Ride or the turf.

One thing horse bettors should pay double attention to is horses that have performed well on this particular surface.

If you think humans are creatures of habit, pump it up about 100% and you have the equine process.

When looking at connections at Santa Anita, it can be just as important to know where some trainers don't excel rather than what they do well.

John Sadler had one of his best years, if not his very best, as he finished 5 back in second in the standings beating everyone except Mike Mitchell.

He hit at a solid near 16% but an area that he has had a problem with for years again reared its ugly head.

In a 3-year study though the end of the Anita meet last year, Sadler was only 7 for 123 with first-time starters.

So no matter how fast or how well spaced the works are, tread very lightly with Sadler debuters.

Steve Knapp is a guy that does it with numbers. He saddled 123 runners at the meet last season and hit with about 11% of his starters but again, he is not good with new stock and was 0 for 21 at one point with firsters.

Enter the high profile Jeff Mullins. Since coming to California his barn has been a whirl of controversy but he finished 6th in the standings last year despite the fact that his debuters were only 9 for 116 in a 3-year period ending mid April last year.

The small barns to latch onto for horse bettors to shock the big barns are runners saddled by Carla Gaines, 29% last year, Cliff Sise (20%) Kathy Walsh (21%) and Wesley Ward (24%).

There are always certain chauffeurs that are preferred. Rafael Bejarano and Garrett Gomez are winning races now the same way Shoemaker and Pincay dominated but there are some talented guys that fly under the radar and bring value to a wager.

Horse bettors should never be afraid to use horses ridden by Joel Rosario, who recently hired track announcer Vic Stauffer as his new booking agent.

The Baze Boys, Tyler and Michael, will win their share with the nod toward Tyler for a more successful year since he has a very potent agent in Ronny Eubanks, who vacations with guys like Bobby Frankel and Richard Dutrow Jr.

Two pilots that have the ability to lead the league but don't have the proper connections are Clinton Potts and Jose Valdivia. They don't get the top mounts, but they get the most out of what they ride.

Happy New Year and have a great Anita meeting.