Game on Dude still the best even with Coil around, as he landed the Goodwood Stakes in style at Santa Anita
The Bob Baffert trained 4-year-old gelding, Game on Dude, proved to be resilient when it mattered the most, holding away the late running Awesome Gem. The son of Awesome Again marked his comeback to Santa Anita with a win on 1 October, 2011.
Game on Dude won the Grade 1 $250,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita by a mere half a length over Awesome Gem, the most prominent and determined in the 8-horse field.
It had to come down to the final yards as it was shaping up to be. The race was run over a blistering pace over the Santa Anita’s lightning quick dirt track and under strong encouragement from jockey Chantal Sutherland, the Kentucky bred gelding showed his
mettle.
Game on Dude was also accompanied by his stable mate, Coil, the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational winner, and as they went off, Tres Borrachos took the early lead.
The sprinter took care of Coil and Game on Dude, who was a little slow into stride, but was shaken up by Chantal Sutherland to hustle up and get into the race.
Tres Borrachos spurted till the half mile mark and kept the lead till then, blazing the early quarter mile in 22.30 seconds as he maintained that lightning speed to set the half mile marker on fire with a pacey 45.28 seconds.
Game on Dude pressed Tres Borrachos on the outside and keeping him under pressure while he set impressive fractions till the half mile mark.
However, the six furlongs mark was Game on Dude’s as he completed the distance in 1 minute and 9.03 seconds.
Under Martin Garcia, Coil, the other Bob Baffert runner made the third place slot his own, but after passing by Tres Borrachos, Coil entered the stretch to reel in the leaders but couldn’t maintain the same pace as Game on Dude.
David Flores angled out Awesome Gem for a drive after a ground saving trip, and detached himself from the rear pack and spurted past opponents into the stretch from fourth position.
Awesome Gem out finished Coil by 1 ½ lengths, but couldn’t beat Game on Dude who covered the 1 1/8 mile distance in 1 minute and 47.36 seconds, his third at Santa Anita following up his controversial win in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.
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