Bob and Jackie win San Gabriel off the field

The San Gabriel Stakes (G3) came off the field on December 26 at Santa Anita Park, three of the four potential starters have been crossed out, and Bob and Jackie took advantage of the situation to win his first effort on clay.

With the favorite of the morning line, Take the road , among the scratches, coach Richard Baltas said he and owner Calvin Nguyen saw no reason not to give their whole 5-year-old son Swirling candies a chance to show what he could do on the main track after a nine-game losing streak on the green, a tangle that included a second at the 2020 San Gabriel.

“There was no discussion,” Baltas said. “We’ve never tried him on dirt. He has a little pedigree for dirt, even though he looks like a grass horse. There were a few good scratches in there and it was like, ‘We have nothing to lose. We have to go.'”

This is exactly what Bob and Jackie did. With Jose Valdivia Jr. in irons, he went straight ahead, established a pedestrian pace on the fast lane with Soul ready pushing it. He was still in charge at the end of the second lap.

At that point, Jose Ortiz had the favorite after the hour, brothers route , engaged outside the leaders. After looking around a bit early in the stretch race, he took on a serious challenge until the round of 16 and fell just short of catching the winner. Ready Soul retained third place with Indian woodpecker a distant fourth and final as Bob and Jackie covered 1 1/8 miles in 1: 53.51.

When asked about the impact of the short field on the result, Baltas credited Valdivia with devising a winning effort.

“Well I’ve seen this horse dig before and Jose did a great job at the back of relaxing it,” said the trainer. “He kind of looks up, but he digs and he digs and it was a nice win.”

Valdivia said the credit goes to everyone, including Bob and Jackie and his owner.

“He was sort of waiting a bit,” he said. “But when the horses came up to him, he dug and tried to fight a little more. But hats off to a great team — Calvin for shooting. Like he said, it’s already a short peloton ( with seven entries) and now it’s going to be even shorter (after the scratches). So why not? “

Bob and Jackie hadn’t won since landing the restricted Wickerr Stakes in Santa Anita in July 2020, although he had four seconds in the intermediate starts. He improved to five wins in 15 starts while scoring his first win of any kind. The bay funded $ 484,631.

Descended from the little mare Zayat Stables, Fateer by Eskendereya , Bob and Jackie were raised in Kentucky by Zayat Stables. Nguyen bought him through Price / Recio Bloodstock for $ 190,000 from the shipment of St George Sale during the Keeneland breeding sale in November 2020.

The 5 year old colt became the first winner of Fateer’s ranked stakes, she also produced a winner at El Socio which is campaigned by Reeves Thoroughbred Racing. The 3 year old foal by Bodemeister also ran on December 26 among the first company to Gulfstream Park on turf for 1 1/16 miles, finishing fourth. The family has two fillies in the works, Brooklynns Star, by Payer , who started this year as a minor and an unnamed 2-year-old by The joy of the kitten .

Video: San Gabriel S. (G3)