March 8 - Jockey Martin Garcia had big weekend, because not only did he guide 4-year-old roan Misremembered to win Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap (Gr 1), but on Sunday he romped home first aboard 5-year-old horse Sangaree in the $60,350 Joe Hernandez Stakes.

Garcia was quoted as saying that the Santa Anita race meet was the greatest weekend of his life. Which is not surprising considering he won Saturday's 1 1/4 mile feature aboard 8/1 shot Misremembered in fine style, dispatching the thirteen other runners to cross the line first by half a length.

Misremembered's trainer Bob Baffert gave Garcia a lot of the credit, as it was the horse and jockey's first race together. Coming into the Santa Anita Handicap, the roan and his regular rider, Victor Espinoza, had chalked up three second places. However, Baffert decided to shake things up on Saturday.

Unlike Espinoza, who is in the habit of breaking slowly aboard Misremembered, Garcia was given strict instructions from Baffert to break like a thunder clap. And he did so that early on he was already hot on the heels of the pacesetter. At the mile mark, Garcia asked the roan for more and took the lead.

Despite a hard-fought challenge by Neko Bay in the stretch, Misremembered had enough left in his tanks to fend of the challenge and cross the line first, half a length clear. Neko Bay, with champion jockey Mike Smith aboard, took second while Dakota Phone, with Victor Espinoza aboard, stayed on for third.

Said Baffert following the race, 'Last time I was so disappointed [referring to Misremembered's previous outing]. You just got to let him roll. He's got one speed. He's a long-striding horse. So we let him do it. When he was out there, he didn't chase after that speed horse. He just really dug in.'

In next day's Joe Hernandez Stakes, Garcia also delivered a sterling win aboard Sangaree when he managed to hold off the field to romp home comfortably in first place, covering the 6 1/2 furlongs in a time of 1:15.28. Owned by Darley Stable, the Joe Hernandez was Sangaree's first stakes win.