Coach Rocks’ rolls over Oaks favorite

HALLANDALE BEACH — Coach Rocks’ impressive stretch run, in which she ran down favorite Take Charge Paula to win Saturday’s $300,000 GII Gulfstream Park Oaks triggered the most raucous victory celebration in the Gulfstream Park winner’s circle on Florida Derby day.

When the 3-year-old filly caught and passed the favorite to draw off to a 1

1⁄2-length victory, it earned her a trip to the Kentucky Oaks in Louisville, a city which part owner Rick Pitino knows all too well.

The former head men’s basketball coach of the Louisville Cardinals, Pitino was all smiles Saturday as he congratulated his copartners, Roddy Valente and representatives from West Point Thoroughbreds, along with trainer Dale Romans, who has now won this race in three of the past four years.

The win was Coach Rocks’ second in a row and her second at 1 1⁄16-miles with Luis Saez in the irons, earning her 100 points and a guaranteed spot in the Kentucky Oaks. Her winning time was 1:44.63.

“We are so excited because Dale said ‘Coach, you have a stakes horse here,’” Pitino said. “He said that once that horse goes long, coach, you have a special horse, and he was 100 percent on the money.”

Pitino, the Hall of Fame coach who was forced out of his job amid mounting scandals just before the start of this past season, said that as of now he has no plans to go to Louisville for the race — that is, unless there is a sudden change in the composition of the school’s board.

“Unless David [Grissom] and the pizza guy Papa John [Schnatter] retire from the Board of Trustees, then I’ll be there,” Pitino said.

In another high-profile race on the Florida Derby undercard, Conquest Big E led at every call to win the $300,000 GII Gulfstream Park Mile. The son of Tapit easily dominated a field of six that included last year’s Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and 2017 Holy Bull winner Irish War Cry.

According to owner Dan Hurtak, the plan was for jockey Jose Bautista to put the 5-year-old gelding right on the lead. Breaking from the inside post, he did that with relative ease.

Always Dreaming appeared to be setting up a perfect stalking trip, but Conquest Big E kept edging away and inside the final furlong had enough of a lead to bring home the win in a time of 1:35.92. Always Dreaming, making his 4year-old debut, finished three lengths back.

According to Conquest Big E’s trainer, Donna Green Hurtak, the connections will look for a race locally with an eventual eye on Saratoga.

Besides the Florida Derby, two graded stakes and four other stakes races were on the Saturday card. In the $250,000 GII Pan American Stakes, Hy Happy caught and easily passed pacesetter One Go All Go in the stretch to take the 1 1⁄2 turf race in 2:23.85.

The $250,000 GIII Honey Fox Stakes saw Lull jump out to the lead and set hot early fractions, only to have enough at the wire to hold off Res Ipsa to win by a nose. Lull’s winning time for the mile turf race was 1:33.14.

In the $150,000 Cutler Bay Stakes, Therapist railed wide past Speed Franco and early pacesetter Salmanazar to win the mile turf race in 1:33.42. Therapist edged Speed Franco for the win by a neck.

The counterpart race for fillies, the $150,000 Sanibel Island Stakes, saw Figarella’s Queen surviving a photo a nose ahead of a late-running Ferdinanda. She covered the mile in 1:34.59.

The race made history as Saez, aboard Figarella’s Queen, notched his 133rd win of the meet, the most of any jockey during a winter meet.

Saez, who had three winners on the day, will claim his second consecutive meet riding title at the conclusion of Sunday’s race card. Other meet-leading titles were won by trainer Todd Pletcher for the 15th year in a row, and owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey for the sixth year in a row.

Rainbow 6 sets records

A North American record $16,583,425 was bet into Saturday’s Rainbow 6 which swelled the jackpot to $21,336,579, also a North American record, ahead of the mandatory payout at the end of the day. Each winning ticket paid out $9,018.02.