ARCADIA, CA – With his well-fancied stablemate empty a furlong from home, Magic On Tap rallied three-deep to take Saturday’s $200,000 Triple Bend Stakes (G2) by 2 lengths.
Ridden for the first time by Juan Hernandez, who collected his second consecutive stakes win on the day, Magic On Tap got 7 furlongs in 1:23.54.
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As expected, Eight Rings, a Grade 1 winner at age 2 and idle since August 1, rocketed out of the gate under Flavien Prat but was soon headed by Lambeau, who broke from post 2 with Edwin Maldonado.
This pair raced as a team into and around the far turn, with Magic On Tap sitting third, about a length off the lead a 1/4-mile out.
From there, Lambeau dropped back at the rail, and despite the fact he remained on his left lead, Magic On Tap gained the advantage in mid-stretch and went on to an impressive win in his sixth career start.
“My horse, he helped me a lot, he broke really sharp and I was behind the speed all the race, then when I hit the 1/4-pole, I asked him to go and he responded really well,” said Hernandez, who was aboard for the first time today. “It looked like he was playing, he was looking around. He never changed leads. I asked him a couple of times and he didn’t want to do it, so I let him alone because he kept running. It didn’t matter if he changed leads or not, he just kept going.”
A 5-year-old full horse by Tapit, out of the Street Sense mare Aubby K, Magic On Tap, who was owned and bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Equine, cut back in distance following a 23 3/4-length defeat in the Californian Stakes (G2) going a mile and 1/8 here on April 17 and paid $13.20, $6.00 and $3.00 while off at 5-1 in a field of five older horses.
With his first stakes win in hand, Magic On Tap banked $120,000 for his efforts and improved his overall mark to 6-3-2-0 while boosting his earnings to $228,800.
Trained by Peter Eurton and ridden by Umberto Rispoli, Shooters Shoot rallied from last to finish second at odds of 5/1 and paid $5.40 and $2.80 while finishing 1 3/4 lengths in front of Exaulted.
The second choice at 2/1 with Abel Cedillo, Exaulted paid $2.20 and finished 2 3/4 lengths in front of 8/5 favorite Eight Rings.
Fractions on the race were 22.10, 45.03 and 1:10.14.
