Santa Anita’s new Autumn thorobred meet opened yesterday to begin some bigtime racing in Arcadia where it should be this time of year.

Today Blind Luck will make her final tuneup for the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic when she runs in the Lady’s Secret Stakes, one of four Grade 1 races on the day with Breeders’ Cup implications.

The winner of each of the $250,000 races will earn an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 4-5 at Churchill Downs.

Blind Luck, last year’s 3-year-old filly champion, has never finished out of the money in 21 career starts for trainer and co-owner Jerry Hollendorfer.

She comes into the Lady’s Secret with three straight victories under jockey Garrett Gomez, following five consecutive second-place finishes beginning late last year.

In the 1 1-8-mile Goodwood Stakes, Santa Anita Handicap winner Game On Dude and Haskell winner Coil top the nine-horse field. Both are trained by Bob Baffert. Pacific Classic winner Acclamation is entered, but trainer Don Warren has indicated the horse is more likely to run in Sunday’s Clement L. Hirsch Turf Championship instead.

In the 1 1-16-mile Norfolk Stakes for 2-year-olds, Drill and Creative Cause head the field. They finished one-two in the Del Mar Futurity earlier this month.

I spoke with track spokesman (how appropriate) Mike Willman on Thursday afternoon and we talked about what’s going on this fall at ‘The Great Race Place’ including it’s new track surface…

Mike Willman with Ted Sobel: