Spirit of Makena rolls to Triple Bend victory
Ready for a showdown between the two best sprinters in Southern California? We might get it in the Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar this summer if the connections for Spirit of Makena and Straight No Chaser cooperate.
After Straight No Chaser turned in a spectacular performance in the Grade III Maryland Sprint on Preakness day at Pimlico, running the 6 furlongs in an eye-catching 1:08.27 while recording a 107 Beyer Speed Figure, Spirit of Makena had his turn to impress onlookers Saturday at Santa Anita.
The 5-year-old son of 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper accepted the challenge, easily disposing of six overmatched rivals in the $200,000 Grade II Triple Bend Stakes with a 31/4-length victory over the old warrior, C Z Rocket, while running the 7 furlongs in 1:23.07.
Spirit of Makena, the 4-5 favorite, has now won four of five starts for earnings of $347,600 and is unbeaten in three starts at Santa Anita, the site of this year's Breeders' Cup. Trained by George Papaprodromou and ridden by Joe Bravo, he won his second consecutive graded stakes after scoring a 11/2-length victory in the Grade III San Carlos at Santa Anita on March 11.
“Good horses just make you look good,” Bravo said. “He overcame a lot of things in his younger age (he didn't debut until age 4) and in giving him some time off he really developed. Look at what he did out there today. That was pretty nice ... Makena just got underneath me turning for home and you saw what happened.”
Spirit of Makena tracked pacesetter Forbidden Kingdom from second up the backside, pulled even at the quarter pole and from that point the race was for second place. C Z Rocket outgamed 27-1 longshot Desmond Doss for the runnerup spot by a nose.
After the race, Papaprodromou mentioned the Bing Crosby (July 29) and Breeders' Cup Sprint (Nov. 4) as two races possibly in Spirit of Makena's future. Dan Blacker, trainer of Straight No Chaser, mentioned the same two races in an interview with the Southern California News Group earlier in the week.
“He's a nice horse,” said Papaprodromou, who won the Triple Bend last year with American Theorem. “He won the last time doing the same thing kind of.
I'm grateful to train a horse like that.”
Daytona Stakes
Fast Buck, despite setting blazing fractions down the hillside turf course, held on to win the $100,000 Grade III turf sprint by a neck over 3-2 favorite Whatmakessammyrun. The second-place finisher had every chance to run by the frontrunner the length of the stretch but could never catch the game winner.
Sent postward as the 2-1 second choice with Hector Berrios aboard, Fast Buck opened a six-length lead at one point while running the first quarter mile in 21.05 seconds and the half in 42.64. Final time for the 61/2 furlongs was 1:11.68, just a tick off the stakes record of 1:11.59 set by Caracortado in 2012. Lovesick Blues finished third, a head behind Whatmakessammy run.
“He made me nervous, he was going fast,” said trainer Cesar DeAlba, who registered his first Santa Anita stakes victory. “But that was the plan, to go to the lead and see if we can hang on. If you (watch) maybe the last sixteenth or the last eighth (of a mile), Hector Berrios kind of moved him out to look for the other horse and he said once he saw (him), he dug back in. He's a good rider.”