Arrogate soundly beaten by Accelerate in stunner
DEL MAR, Calif, July 23, (AP): Mike Smith tried everything he could with Arrogate. He moved the colt to the outside, but he didn’t pick up the pace. Smith dropped him down near the rail before wheeling him outside once more. Arrogate to win the $300,000 San Diego Handicap by 8-1/2 lengths Saturday at Del Mar, snapping the seven-race winning streak of the world’s top-ranked horse.
Arrogate finished fourth, beaten by 15-1/4 lengths in the 4-year-old colt’s first race since March 25 in Dubai.
“I’m at a loss for words,” Smith said. “He was just flat, so flat.”
His trainer, Bob Baffert, was blunter, saying Arrogate “laid an egg.”
It wasn’t the first time Accelerate got the best of Arrogate. Last year at Los Alamitos, Accelerate beat Arrogate by a neck in the colt’s career debut in a race won by another horse. It was Arrogate’s lone loss until Saturday.
“I thought he’d run better than that,” Baffert said, “but he just didn’t want to go.”
Accelerate lived up to his name, leading all the way while covering 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.15.
Ridden by Victor Espinoza, Accelerate paid $17.60, $32.60 and $22 as the 7-1 second choice in the field of five.
“He got in a nice rhythm; he was going easy,” said Espinoza, aboard for the first time. “I was surprised by how far I won. I wasn’t surprised that I did; I was here to win.”
Donworth, a 24-1 shot, returned $119.80 and $67.40. His payoffs were a track record, bettering the old mark of $101.60 and $40.20 set by Cipria on Sept. 1, 1955.
Baffert-trained $38.20 to show.
All but $214,466 of the $2,671,938 total win, place and show pool wagering was bet on Arrogate, the 1-20 favorite.
Cat
Burglar
paid Netherlands’ Dylan Groenewegen crosses the finish line to win the twenty-first and last stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 103 kilometers (64 miles) with start in Montgeron and finish in Paris,
France, on July 23. (AP)