Should Irish jockey Jamie Spencer win the Nov. 1 Twilight Derby (G2T) at Santa Anita Park aboard Tribalism, he would become the second European rider to win the race. But the circumstances are quite different from when William Buick won it on Grandeur in 2012.
In the years Santa Anita has hosted the Breeders' Cup, the 1 1/8-mile Twilight Derby has often been an undercard event. Buick won the 2012 Twilight Derby two races after he finished third on The Fugue in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T).
This year, with Keeneland hosting the Breeders' Cup, Santa Anita will hold the Twilight Derby on its closing day, the day after the Breeders' Cup has finished up in Kentucky. Spencer, a champion jockey in both England and Ireland, is this fall riding regularly at Santa Anita. Though he hasn't yet won a Breeders' Cup race, he has three seconds and three thirds in the series.
Trainer Michael McCarthy has named Spencer on Tribalism, who has started only four times, with a win and two seconds. In his stakes debut, Tribalism finished unplaced in the 1 1/8-mile Del Mar Derby (G2T) after having to steady.
Proletariat, trained by Jeff Mullins, won the Del Mar Derby and returns for the Twilight Derby. The gelding is riding a three-racing winning streak, which began in a May 15 allowance optional claimer at Santa Anita and continued at Del Mar with the Oceanside Handicap (by 5 3/4 lengths) and Del Mar Derby. Kyle Frey has ridden Proletariat in all seven of his starts and will be back aboard. Mullins won the 2018 Twilight Derby with River Boyne.
Trainer Phil D'Amato is looking for his first Twilight Derby and has entered two: Melismatic and Path To Power. Both began their careers in Europe before D'Amato took over their training in California, a pattern that has worked extremely well for the conditioner with many runners.
Melismatic started twice in his native Ireland without a win. He broke his maiden at Santa Anita May 2, in his second start for D'Amato, and added another victory in a July 19 allowance optional claimer at Del Mar. Both were at a mile on turf. Melismatic finished fifth in the Del Mar Derby.
English-bred Path To Power finished second in one start in Ireland and has run three times in California for D'Amato. Sixth in his United States debut, the gelding won a 1 1/8-mile turf maiden race Aug. 8 at Del Mar by 3 1/4 lengths and followed that with a second in a Del Mar allowance optional claimer Sept. 5.
Unrivaled Time, a California-bred son of Not This Time trained by Leonard Powell, ran fourth in the Del Mar Derby. He has won two stakes. At 2 last year he captured the Cecil B. DeMille Stakes (G3T) at Del Mar, and May 23 he faced Cal-breds in the Snow Chief Stakes, winning by a head over the same course and distance of the Twilight Derby.
Essos, fourth in the Sept. 6 Shared Belief Stakes on dirt in his only stakes attempt, rounds out the field. Trained by Mark Glatt, he is coming off a neck victory in a 1 1/4-mile allowance optional claimer on turf Oct. 18.
Santa Anita Park, Sunday, November 1, 2026, Race 4Entries: Twilight Derby (G2T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Proletariat (KY) Kyle Frey 124 Jeff Mullins - 2 Melismatic (IRE) Kazushi Kimura 124 Philip D'Amato - 3 Tribalism (IRE) Jamie P. Spencer 124 Michael W. McCarthy - 4 Essos (KY) Umberto Rispoli 124 Mark Glatt - 5 Unrivaled Time (CA) Joel Rosario 124 Leonard Powell - 6 Path To Power (GB) Juan J. Hernandez 124 Philip D'Amato -
