Favorite Tapped upset by Simmy’s Temple
Simmy’s Temple may not have accomplished much with only a maiden win in five starts, but the experience translated into a hard-fought victory by three-quarters of a length over 1-to-5 favorite Tapped and Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith in Saturday’s $75,000 Pike Place Dancer Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.
Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Tapped rallied late to win her 6-furlong debut by a nose Oct. 2 at Santa Anita. Saturday’s 1-mile race, switched from the turf to the Tapeta Footings synthetic surface because of rain, was the fifth straight start at that distance for Simmy’s Temple, who went off at 6-to-1.
“I have no excuse other than the obvious that she had run only one time, different track and two turns for the first time,” Smith said. “An extraordinary or maybe very above average horse would have gotten the job done. But she certainly has room to improve a whole lot.”
Smith had Tapped in ideal position just behind and outside of Noble Dancer and Buy Me a Drink around the first turn. Buy Me a Drink dropped back leaving the backstretch, and Tapped went after Noble Dancer on the second turn.
Simmy’s Temple ran in fourth place on the inside until moving between horses to reach contention at the top of the stretch. She surged past Tapped inside the eighth pole, had that one battle back but was moving away at the wire.
Trained by Doug O’Neill, Simmy’s Temple had finished eighth and sixth in stakes races at Del Mar and Santa Anita following her maiden victory.
“I didn’t talk to them at all, but Armando Lage saddled the horse and told me they just said good luck,” winning jockey Juan Hernandez said. “She broke well and settled behind the speed. I was waiting all race on the inside, saving ground, and when I went for the spot and pulled out, she went and she finished strong.”
Smith and Hollendorfer, of course, have a much more important collaboration Friday at Santa Anita with undefeated sensation Songbird in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Briefly: Following the Pike Place Dancer Stakes, Quick and Silver led from the start and just lasted by a head over fast-finishing Star Student in a prep for the Nov. 19 Oakland Stakes. … Central Heat, who has won 10 of her past 12 starts including three stakes, runs in Sunday’s fifth race. Also in the field of six fillies and mares prepping for the Dec. 10 Miss America Stakes is Elegant Bel, a Bill Delia-trained stablemate of Central Heat who upset her in the Luther Burbank Handicap . ... Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist won’t run in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Santa Anita because of a “puffy ankle.” The colt was scheduled to be retired after the Classic and go to stud in Kentucky.