After coming off an extremely unlucky trip last time out, Lucky Antares came back today to take the Sunday feature. She broke very alertly from the 3 post, and jockey Ricky Gonzalez did a great job to get her in a forward position just behind the leaders. A clear lane opened in the 3 path in the stretch and she was full of run– she kicked on to score by 3/4 of a length and paid $25.60. The 4yo daughter of Lucky Pulpit has now earned her 4th career victory from 22 starts. Her trainer Steve Specht has done a great job keeping her sound and progressing her up the ranks. She has always been pretty close at the wire, but just hadn’t been able to put it all together at this level. She went from running Beyers in the 60s to what appears to be back-to-back in the 70s. It will be interesting to see if she can continue to improve and if today’s win gives her confidence to start piecing more wins together. Flying late for 2nd was Plum Wild at 20/1 and ‘Horses to Watch’ horse Kelly could only hang on for 3rd at 13/1. The final time for this first condition allowance field going 5.5f was 1:03.52.
The 7th race on the card may have only been a maiden claimer, but it was one of the most exciting races we’ve seen so far at this meet. Bill’s Happy Hour was the heavy favorite dropping in from MSW races, and Getaloadofthis was shipping in from Santa Anita. The two hooked up at the top of the stretch and duked it out the rest of the way. They couldn’t be split at the line– yes, it was a dead-heat! Both got their diplomas from the maiden ranks and they were trained by Sergio Ledezma and Jerry Hollendorfer respectively. The 25k maiden claimers ran the 6f in 1:10.00.
Jockeys: Frank Alvarado and Ricky Gonzalez each scored 2 wins on the 9-race program.
- Cedillo *64* 2. Hernandez *47* 3. Martinez *33*
Trainers: It was a competitive card. All 9 races were won by different trainers.
- Wong *44* 2. Hollendorfer *16* 3. Rivelli *15*
There will be a new ‘Horses to Watch’ list out on Wednesday.
Handle was strong on Sunday’s Dollar Day card, as it totalled $3,640,279.
Live racing resumes Thursday with a 7-race program. First post is at 12:45pm, and it is the only track running in California that day. In the feature, 3yo filly Hollywood Hills tries to make it 5-straight wins. She makes her 2-turn debut in race 6.
Full results/charts for today’s card
NorCal Horse Racing News 