Bettor Trip Nick Scores Gold Rush Victory, Anneau d’Or Hits Derby Trail, Weekly Update

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Coming into the 75k Gold Rush Stakes, Bettor Trip Nick was by far the fastest in the field based on speed figures. The 81 Beyer from his Golden Nugget win was 13 points higher than anything in the race– the only question with him was if he could successfully stretch out to 2 turns. Catalino Martinez got him out of the gate alertly and did a great job getting this 2yo son of Boat Trip to relax on the lead. The pace was very moderate for this level (1/4 and 1/2 were run in 24.03 and 48.34 respectively), especially considering it was an uncontested lead. Once Martinez asked Bettor Trip Nick in the stretch, he stayed on well and hit the wire first to win by 1 1/4 lengths. His trainer Bill Delia has done a great job with this horse and was able to get him to stretch-out after so many nice sprint efforts. Sacred Rider broke from post 9 and got into a nice position sitting outside of the speed in 2nd. However, he couldn’t run down Bettor Trip Nick and stayed on well to narrow the gap late. My selection Music Icon ran well and was really the only one making up any notable ground late. It seemed like the scratch of likely pace presence Absolute Weapon hurt him as he was left with way too much to do coming from off the pace in here. If I had to take a horse out of this race, he is probably the one that I would take. Indian Peak ran on for 4th (despite a wide trip) at a big price to round out the superfecta. The final time for the mile race was 1:38.92 and Bettor Trip Nick earned a 77 Beyer in victory. He is now 4 for 5 lifetime and has banked $110,180 in career earnings. I would guess that we will see him in a sprint next, but he has done absolutely nothing wrong so far. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he stays at a route distance.

#7 Bettor Trip Nick

While we saw one of NorCal’s top 2yos run in the Gold Rush Stakes, earlier that day down south we saw another on the KY Derby trail in the G2 Los Alamitos Futurity. The Blaine Wright trained Anneau d’Or was making his first start since his runner-up finish in the Breeders Cup and was facing a small but talented field of 4. The race was run over a sealed track and was listed as good. He broke from the rail and saved ground for most of the race. Juan Hernandez swung him out perfectly on the turn and looked like he was going to go on by late and get up for the win. Unfortunately the Bob Baffert trained Thousand Words dug down gamely and fought back after getting passed to take the Los Al Futurity. This finish was very similar to what we saw in the Breeders Cup– he was asked very early on the turn but stayed on well, took the lead late, and got battled back on by the horse to his inside. Maybe he needs blinkers to help him pass horses in the stretch? Based on pedigree, maybe he wants to run further? Or, maybe he is just running into very talented horses? It will be interesting to see how he progresses as a 3yo. His speed figures have gotten faster in each start (72 on debut, 86 in BC, and 91 on Saturday). Having run just 3 times, he is still lightly raced, and I think the best is yet to come from this son of Medaglia d’Oro. He has proven a lot in his 3 starts and has shown that he can take his race with him anywhere– handled the turf on debut, ran over a very tiring track at Santa Anita, and then ran over a wet track at Los Alamitos. This experience could very well come in handy for him in the Spring. It is early, but Anneau d’Or is currently in 2nd place on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 12 points. I saw that the El Camino Real Derby was a potential target, so that would be cool to be able to see him back at his home track next out.

#1 Anneau d’Or

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