Return to Today's Full Edition

Phone: (800)354-9206
edit.staff@brisnet.com

ARCHIVES
 
 Printer Friendly Page 

Acclamation wires Whittingham

Acclamation never looked like being caught by the persistent Hyades (Benoit Photos)
E.W. and Judy Johnston's ACCLAMATION (Unusual Heat), who had romped in front-running fashion in the May 15 Jim Murray H. (G2) at Hollywood Park, repeated the dose in Saturday's $250,000 Charles Whittingham Memorial H. (G1) over the same Inglewood, California, course.

In the process, he emulated Storming Home (GB) (2003) as the only horses to turn the Murray/Whittingham double, and he gave trainer Donald Warren and jockey Christian Santiago Reyes their first ever Grade 1 success.

Sprinting right to the early lead, Acclamation opened up a comfortable advantage through splits of :24 2/5, :49, 1:12 2/5 and 1:35 3/5. Hyades (Aldebaran) gradually worked his way to the head of the stalking group, and chased after the front runner down the stretch. Acclamation drifted out late, but kept on determinedly by 1 1/2 lengths at the line. The co-second choice at 3-1, Acclamation took 1:59 2/5 to negotiate 1 1/4 miles on the firm turf, paying $8.20, $5 and $4.

"I rode him the same way I did last time," Santiago Reyes said. "The way the race came up, there wasn't much speed so I hustled him out of the gate. He's just a good horse and he's real sharp right now. He was very strong the entire race."

"We've gotten lucky the last couple of races where the speed has scratched," Warren observed, "and there wasn't a lot of speed to go with him, so we didn't have a lot of strategy to go ahead and lead the way. I told (Santiago Reyes) him that he runs so well on the turn that, when you get to the middle of that (far turn), kick and go on wherever you are. Kick and go. Make a run for it right there. He loves this course. We'll see how he comes out of this race, and there is the Sunset H. (G3) on the last day of the meet (July 18).''

The 14-1 Hyades returned $11.40 and $8 for his promising stakes debut. Brushburn (Unusual Heat) got up for third, another three-quarters of a length back, and provided $8.60 at 14-1. The $1 exotics were worth $45.60 (exacta), $393.30 (trifecta) and $1,515.80 (1-8-7-5 superfecta) with 8-5 favorite Loup Breton (Ire) (Anabaa) along for fourth. Battle of Hastings (GB) (Royal Applause [GB]), Unusual Suspect (Unusual Heat), Rendezvous (Victory Gallop), Scintillo (GB) (Fantastic Light) and Porfido (Chi) (Mash One [Chi]) rounded out the order of finish.

Carry Gulch (Arg) (Thunder Gulch), who had stalked in second for the initial half-mile, faded turning into the stretch, was pulled up in distress and vanned off. Red Sun (Redattore [Brz]) and Great Siege (Ire) (Rock of Gibraltar [Ire]) were withdrawn, with the latter opting for Sunday's 7TH race instead.

Acclamation's scorecard now stands at 19-4-2-6, $497,048. While the four-year-old colt has really turned the corner in his past two, he had run well at the graded level previously without managing to win. Third in last year's Hollywood Derby (G1), Del Mar Derby (G2) and San Gabriel H. (G2), as well as the Strub S. (G2) earlier this season, he was fourth in the Inglewood H. (G3) two back. Acclamation was also second in the 2009 Ralph M. Hinds Pomona Invitational H.

Bred by Old English Rancho, Acclamation is the last registered foal from the unraced Winning in Style (Silveyville), who is also responsible for the stakes-placed pair of Strut Your Stuff (Bold Badgett) and Always in Style (Lucayan Prince). Another of Acclamation's half-siblings, Flying in Style (Flying Sensation), is the dam of 2007 Derby Trial S. winner, Flying First Class (Perfect Mandate). This is the family of Grade 3 victor and multiple Grade 1-placed Stylish Winner (Obraztsovy), and further back, multiple stakes queen Fleet Treat (Fleet Nasrullah). Multiple Grade 1 star and $2.3 million-earner Marlin (Sword Dance [Ire]) descends from another productive branch of this female line.


 

CLICK HERE


Send this article to a friend