DEL MAR, CA – Westpoint Thoroughbreds, Denise Barker, William Sandbrook, and Coolmore’s Galilean successfully passed his first turf test by winning Sunday’s $125,000 California Dreamin’ Stakes at Del Mar.
Galilean was the 6/5 favorite as he broke from post 2 under Flavien Prat. Grinning Tiger dueled inside of Ultimate Bango and Take the One O One as the field exited the chute and made the main track.
Halfway through the clubhouse turn, Take the One O One shot to the lead and posted opening fractions of :23.43 and :47.02 while a redirected Grinning Tiger tracked two-wide down the backstretch.
Galilean continued tracking along the rail as the field entered the far turn and tipped off halfway through to present a strong challenge at the top of the stretch.
Taking the lead after straightening for home, Galilean withstood a mid-stretch bid from Whooping Jay to win by 3/4 of a length.
The John Sadler trainee’s final time was 1:41 flat for the 1 1/16-mile firm turf route restricted to California-bred or -sired horses.
“This horse today put me in a good spot,” Prat said. “I was able to save ground and he ran well to finish.”
Though he came up short in the end, Whooping Jay’s surprising push gave him second by 1 length over Brandothebartender, himself a 1/2-length ahead of Desmond Doss.
Three Ay Em, Irish Heatwave, Loud Mouth, Ultimate Bango, Take the One O One, and Grinning Tiger completed the order of finish.
Jockey Drayden Van Dyke fell off of Camino Del Paraiso at the top of the stretch when a chain reaction from the inside caused Camino Del Paraiso to clip heels and stumble. Both Van Dyke and Camino Del Paraiso walked off the course without any apparent injuries.
Galilean’s win was his second straight following the Soi Phet Stakes against California-breds on the Los Alamitos dirt. The 4-year-old Uncle Mo colt improved his overall record to 10-5-1-3 with $514,098 earned.
“A beautiful ride by Flavien,” Sadler said. “A ground-saving trip and he liked the turf just as we thought he would. We like to run twice here, so we’ll look for something at the end of the meet, but nothing really jumps out off the top of my head right now. We’ll see.”
Galilean returned $4.40 to win, $3.80 to place, and $2.80 to show. Whooping Jay brought back $20 to place and $9.60 to show, while Brandothebartender paid $4 to show.
