Flashiest Lives Up To Name With Rallying Oceanside Win

DEL MAR, CA – Ninth in a field of 12 with a 1/4-mile to run in Friday’s $80,000 Oceanside Stakes, and sixth turning into the stretch with 5 lengths to make up, Flashiest mounted an eye-catching rally down the middle of the track under Abel Cedillo to win the traditional opening-day feature, in doing so providing trainer Leonard Powell with his fourth Del Mar stakes victory.

“This horse has always been a bad actor in the gate, he never stands still,” Powell said. “That cost him at the start. And when you don’t have any room inside, you have to go outside.

“I wasn’t happy he had to go, I think 7 (paths) wide coming off the turn, but he has that big, big stride.”

And it was just enough for a head victory over Crew Dragon in what was only the fourth career start for Flashiest.

Powell, a part-owner with Kentucky breeders Indian Creek Farm and Nicky Drion in the Mizzen Mast gelding, saw Flashiest rally from 6 lengths behind at the 1/2 to win by 3 in a 7 1/2-furlong debut at Turf Paradise on April 5.

A win at Santa Anita attracted additional partners, among them Gary Barber, and a runner-up finish there last month set Flashiest up for the $27.60 upset in the Oceanside.

“He was a very immature horse and we decided to geld him, which did him some good,” Powell said. “He came in late to the barn but he has been a good presence.”