Euroears broke Del Mar Poly track record to win the Bing Crosby Stakes for Bob Baffert, who landed back to back Grade 1s
The seven-year-old son of Langfuhr handed trainer Bob Baffert with a grade 1 win in the $250,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar Poly track on 31 July, 2011.
While doing it, Euroears broke the Del Mar Poly track record for six furlongs and was clocked in 1 minute and 8.17 seconds.
The win gave trainer Bob Baffert two grade 1 wins from east coast to the west, as his 3-year-old colt Coil won the $1million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, few hours before the start of Bing Crosby Stakes.
Under jockey Rafael Bejarano, Euroears was .12 seconds earlier to the wire to break the previous record at Del Mar set by Cost of Freedom on 9 August, 2009. The sever-year-old horse won the race by 1 ¼ lengths.
Euroears last race was at Meydan in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen on 26 March, 2011. Euroears ridden by jockey M E Smith, kept on same pace, as he finished second to 2 ¼ lengths Patrick Shaw trained Rocket Man.
After the race, jockey Rafael Bejarano was all praise for the chestnut horse, he further added that he thought there would be some pressure up front, but it wasn’t as the pair drove past rivals to win an important race of the Del Mar meet.
Owned by James and Marilyn Helzer, Euroears is out of Unky and Ally by Heff. The pair took advantage of the stumbling even money favourite Smiling Tiger, who was defending his Bing Crosby, title broke very slowly from the gates on the field of six.
The Joel Rosario ridden multiple stakes winner, Smiling Tiger conjured up pace and some momentum at the end and, charge for the second place as he took over Amazombie to finish ahead by half a length.
The time off from racing paid dividends for Baffert trainer Euroears, as he was given ample amount of time to recover from the Dubai trip. The powerfully built chestnut showed his mettle and proved that he is still good on a six furlong sprint.
Under Rafael Bejarano, Euroears hustled and opened up the field after bolting past the quarter pole mark. At that time the pair were leading the field by 2 ½ lengths, but drifted out a bit in the lane.
In the sixth furlong, Kinsale King under Martin Pedroza with Amazombie roused by Mike Smith rallied to keep pace with Euroears, but under Bejatano’s strong urging the pair got home safe.
Smiling Tiger rallied harder to take over both Kinsale King and Amazombie to finish a respectable second.
Euroears went on to win for the 10th time in all of 19 life time starts, with twice finishing second and third.
He boosted up his earnings to $1,041,562 after the Bing Crosby win.
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