Accelerate maintains top spot in NTRA Thoroughbred Poll
Hronis Racing LLC’s Accelerate remained No. 1 in the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association Top 10 Thoroughbred Poll following a 2 1/4-length victory in the Grade 1 $300,345 Awesome Again Stakes Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., while perennial Oaklawn champions Ricardo Santana Jr. and Steve Asmussen teamed up to win five stakes races on Sunday at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
Accelerate has won 5 of 6 starts this year, with his only loss coming in the Grade 2 $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap for older horses on April 14 at Oaklawn Park when he was beaten a neck by City of Light. He has won three consecutive Grade 1 races since the Oaklawn Handicap, and the Awesome Again, a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In event for the Classic division, was his fourth overall this year.
Trainer John Sadler was using the 1 1/8-mile Awesome Again as Accelerate’s final prep for the Grade 1 $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.
The odds-on favorite Saturday, Accelerate ($2.60) overcame a poor start to run the distance over a fast track in 1:50.38 under Joel Rosario. Accelerate carried top weight of 125 pounds. West Coast, last year’s champion 3-year-old male, finished second.
Accelerate has a 9-5-5 record from 21 lifetime starts and earnings of $2,492,480.