Inaugurated in 2008, the race is named in honor of
Joe Hernandez, the
race caller at
Santa Anita Park from the time the track opened on
Christmas Day 1934 until his death in 1972. Hernandez called 15,587 races in a row at Santa Anita during that time. The event was predominantly raced on the downhill turf course over the about furlongs distance. In 2010 the event was moved to the synthetic All Weather track due to weather. In 2020 the event was moved and run using the backstretch start at a distance of
furlongs on turf, and the following year the event was run on the newly extended backstretch and close to the former distance of furlongs. The 2017 winner
Stormy Liberal followed up winning the
Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint and repeating that effort in 2018. The event was run twice in the calendar year in 2022 due to scheduling changes. ==Records==