‘Harvey’ sips taste of victory in Derby prep
Harvey Wallbanger is a horse on the Road to the Triple Crown and the name of a mixed drink made with vodka, Galliano and orange juice. Both have a late kick.
Going from last to first in a field of nine 3-year-olds, Harvey the horse stamped himself as one to watch with a surprise victory in his stakes debut Saturday. Getting a rail trip from Brian Hernandez Jr., the son of Congrats won the Grade 2 $350,000 Holy Bull by one length at 29-1 odds at Florida’s Gulfstream Park.
Previously undefeated Maximus Mischief placed third, the
4-5 favorite giving way to Harvey Wallbanger after overtaking pacesetter Epic Dreamer in the stretch.
Trainer Ken McPeek admitted taking a shot with Harvey Wallbanger, whose last-out maiden victory followed three straight seconds.
“It’s a horse race. You can’t duck one, can you? He showed he had some good, solid ability. I was thinking he’d rise up to whatever level you put him in,” McPeek said.
Choosing the Holy Bull over an entry-level allowance, McPeek said he told co-owner Harold Lerner, “Let’s find out how good he is because he can’t be training any better.”
Maximus Mischief, the Grade 2 Remsen winner at Aqueduct late in his 2-year-old season, was edged for second by Everfast, a 128-1 longshot. Mihos, a last-out stakes winner at Gulfstream, placed fifth.
* Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert inspected another of his Derby contenders Saturday and liked the results. A surprise stalker, Mucho Gusto romped home by 4 3/4 lengths in the Grade
3 $150,000 Robert B. Lewis at California’s Santa Anita Park. “Every race he’s getting better and better,” said winning jockey Joe Talamo, changing tactics on the Mucho Macho Man colt, the expected pacesetter. “I’m glad I’ve been working him because he’s better, too. He settled today like he’s been doing this a hundred times.”
Gunmetal Gray, the last-out Grade 3 Sham winner over
the track, finished a closing second in the mile-and-sixteenth race, which Mucho Gusto won in 1:41.81 over a sloppy (sealed) surface.
The Grade 3 Bob Hope winner in November at Del Mar, Mucho Gusto finished second to stablemate Improbable in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity Dec. 8. Baffert also trains male 2-year-old champion and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Game Winner, the five-time Derby winner hinting earlier last week that Mucho Gusto might ship out of state for his next Derby prep.
* Despite stumbling at the start, Tax won the Grade 3 $250,000 Withers by a head at Aqueduct in New York. Junior Alvarado rode the winner, a son of Arch produced by the Giant’s Causeway mare Toll and previously owned by breeders Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider and claimed for $50,000 by trainer Danny Gargan last fall at Keeneland.
“I’m lucky enough to claim one of Claiborne’s horses,” Gargan said. “I’m not lucky enough to train one of their horses.”
Even so, “I knew the family,” Gargan said. He’s a well-bred horse. A beautiful horse. A big, strong horse. We had to take a chance on him.”
Tax lived up to the promise shown when third in the Remsen, 2 3/4 lengths behind Maximus Mischief Dec. 1.
* Harvey Wallbanger, Mucho Gusto and Tax each earned 10 points toward a possible start in the Grade 1 $3 million Kentucky Derby May 4 at Churchill Downs.