Really Mr Greely tops Baffert sweep in Hollywood Prevue

Really Mr Greely tops Baffert sweep in Hollywood Prevue

Those credentials didn't appear to stack up against Baffert's leading pair.

Flashy debut winner Super Ninety Nine had attracted plenty of buzz for the

Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint, only to be scratched after getting cast in his

stall. Shakin It Up, runner-up to Super Ninety Nine in their mutual premiere,

came right back to win impressively, and accordingly was dispatched as the 2-1

second choice in the Prevue.

Neither, however, could catch Really Mr Greely. Breaking alertly, the dark

bay took comfortable command through an opening quarter in :22 3/5, and got away

with an uncontested half in :46 1/5. Z Big Apple was his nearest pursuer until

the lone non-Baffert runner, Peter Miller's filly Heir Kitty, moved up nearing

the final turn. Super Ninety Nine was a couple of lengths farther back, and

Shakin It Up was content to trail.

Swinging into the stretch, Really Mr Greely kept on motoring and began to

inch away from the early stalkers through six furlongs in 1:10 1/5. Super Ninety

Nine commenced a move, and gradually reduced the gap, but not well enough to peg

back the winner.

Really Mr Greely held on by a half-length in a final time of 1:22 4/5 for

seven furlongs over Hollywood Park's Cushion Track and fueled mutuels of $24.60,

$7.20 and $2.80.

"He broke sharp," Leparoux said. "I wanted to be on the lead. He relaxed well

and left me alone, which was beautiful, and when I asked him to go he answered

nice. At the three-eighths pole, I felt they were coming at me, so I asked him

to start going, and he never really stopped."

"No excuses," jockey Rafael Bejarano said of Super Ninety Nine. "He ran well

and everybody (from Baffert's barn) ran well. We knew they all had a chance."

Super Ninety Nine barely salvaged second by a neck from the fast-finishing

Shakin It Up, who was short of room in midstretch, forced to alter course, and

made good late progress.

"I was in traffic throughout the race," jockey Martin Garcia said of Shakin

It Up, whom Pegram also co-owns with Dennis Cardoza. "I think he's a really good

horse."

"When you have that many horses in the same race," assistant trainer Jim

Barnes said, "all you can do is tell the jockeys to stay out of each other's

way. And Julien did the best of staying out of the way.

"I knew he (Really Mr Greely) was fast, but you never know until they break.

All four of them are good horses."

"In the (2002) Del Mar Futurity (then a Grade 2) we ran five," Barnes

recalled. "We won it with a horse called Icecoldbeeratreds. We were first,

second, third, fourth and sixth."

Z Big Apple checked in another 1 1/4 lengths back in fourth, followed by Heir

Kitty.

Bred by David Richardson, Mike Chipman and Michael Hernon in Kentucky, Really

Mr Greely was sold twice at OBS, bringing $13,000 as an August yearling before

going for $40,000 this past April as a two-year-old in training. He has now

earned $85,620 from his 3-2-0-0 line.

Really Mr Greely is the first registered foal from the Forest Camp mare

Mattie Camp, who won her only two career starts. She hails from the family of

Horse of the Year Ghostzapper and Grade 1 star City Zip, both prominent sires.

The Prevue typically produces prospects for Hollywood's Grade 1 CashCall

Futurity, so the principals could get a rematch over 1 1/16 miles on December

15.

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