Horse Racing: Round Up, Hollywood Park in focus
Upset at Hollywood Gold Cup
Defending his title since winning the $500,000 Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup last year was Rail Trip, the 2-to- 5 favourite, in Inglewood California and trashing those ambitions was the 8-to-1 odds winner of the race, Awesome Gem. There have been only two horses in history to have won the Cup two times in a row, an honour Rail Trip was denied.
David Flores aboard the fourth of six choices on the field for the day cruised to victory in 2:03:31 seconds. Although Rail Trip’s trainer believed that the horse was in better condition physically and mentally, he still finished considerably slower than last year when he won the cup. Rail Trip’s time for 1 ¼ miles track last year was an impressive 2:00:75 seconds, fastest recorded time for the track. The favourite had won two recent grade 2 races leading up to Hollywood cup and looked set to defend his title. For Awesome Gem, this race brought the total earnings for the 7 years old gelding to over 2.2 million dollars and constituted his seventh victory adding a hefty $300,000 dollars to the Horse’s earnings.
Saturday was an important day for Awesome Gem as it marked the first and only time in his 36 starts to date that the horse won a grade 1 stakes race. "He's like fine wine. He's just getting better with age," his trainer Craig Dollase said. At his age, performance was expected to be on the decline but Awesome Gem would not be deterred by speculations against him. Visibly excited, Craig at winning the Hollywood Cup noted that a lot of hard work went into keeping the horse in racing condition for 7 years.
Awesome Gem was trailing in the beginning until Jockey Flores found an opportunity to position himself between Compari and the rail. Flores said that the hole opening up was the perfect opportunity for him and that riding a horse that can accelerate into an opening at any time was very important factor in his victory.
Rail Trip too couldn’t take an early lead. He raced wide through most of the race but was able to take the lead later on, only to be taken over by Awesome Gem. Rail Trip was carrying 7 more pounds than Awesome Gem. Noting as much, Rail Trip’s trainer Ron Ellis was reported to be muttering “Too much weight,” as he watched his horse being left behind. Later he said that it was due to the weight that the Horse was Held back. “He should have gotten a good trip and he got a terrible trip,” he said.
Rail Trip finished second just under a length behind Awesome Gem. Rail Trip crossed the 1 million mark with Saturday’s race.
E Z Gentlemen takes Martin Pedroza to 1000th victory
Martin Pedroza rode E Z’s Gentlemen past the finish line on Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Triple Bend H. race to steal his one thousandth victory on the Hollywood park race track. He finished the race in 1:21:11 seconds, where the record for the track stands at 1:20:43. Coming in behind E Z’s Gentlemen was stable mate Sangaree.
Second favourite for the race, M One Rifle, set the pace for the race as he took an early lead just wide of the rail but couldn’t maintain his position and conceded it first to Sangaree and then weakening further to 4th place. Sangaree’s rider Martin Garcia lauded his horse for a very well ran race. Garcia said that during the race he thought that he could catch up to E Z’s Gentlemen’s pace “but that other horse just kept going,” he said.
Pedroza is only the 10th Jockey to have secured 1000 victories at Hollywood Park. Laffit Pincay Jr. leads the tables with 3,049. “I'm sweating so much because this is like winning the Santa Anita H. (G1) or six races in a day,” Martin Pedroza said. He said that getting his 1000th win at Hollywood Park in a grade 1 race meant a lot to him.
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