Acclamation serves notice with work for Eddie Read

Champion older male Acclamation returns to Del Mar with the targets of

defending titles in the Grade 1 Eddie Read and Grade 1, $1 million Pacific

Classic this year.

On Monday, the six-year-old son of Unusual Heat put the finishing touches on

his preparation for Saturday's Eddie Read by working six furlongs in 1:14 2/5 on

the Jimmy Durante Turf course under jockey Patrick Valenzuela.

The intermediate split times from Del Mar clockers were :14, :26 2/5, :38 2/5

and :51. The "dogs" were up to protect the inner part of the course, and

Acclamation came home the final quarter in :23 2/5 well past the middle of the

track.

"It was a very good work, he looked wonderful out there and finished strong,"

trainer Donald Warren said. "He wasn't blowing very hard when he came off the

track and now that he's back at the barn he's cooling out well. We're very

pleased."

Owned by Bud and Judy Johnston's Old English Rancho and Peter and Mary

Hilvers, Acclamation arrived at the seaside track last Wednesday and settled

into stall No. 40 at barn GG, the Del Mar home for Warren and Old English Rancho

stock for decades. It's the closest stall to the trainer's office, traditionally

reserved for a stable's star and, in the case of Acclamation, one up from

Norvsky, Old English Rancho's other Del Mar stakes winner of 2011.

Acclamation went wire-to-wire winning the Eddie Read by 3 1/4 lengths last

year, five weeks before another start-to-finish victory trip in the Pacific

Classic in becoming the first ever to sweep Del Mar's premier turf and main

track races. He finished 2011 with a five-race winning streak and more than $1.1

million in earnings.

His once-postponed 2012 debut came in the Grade 1 Charlie Whittingham on June

9 at Hollywood Park, where he scored an historic three-peat. In another

wire-to-wire effort, he stopped the teletimer in 2:01 2/5 for the 1 1/4 miles on

grass.

"The goal was to run him six times this year," Bud Johnston said. "We missed

one, over what turned out to be nothing. But he's all right, and we'd love to

repeat in both races here."

Acclamation held off Twirling Candy by a head in the 2011 Pacific Classic,

providing Valenzuela a second Classic victory, 20 years after he guided Best Pal

to a win in the inaugural edition of the race.

"It might be a tougher race this year," Johnston said. "Although I thought

Twirling Candy might have been the best horse in the country when we beat him

last year."

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