Venerable Gelding scored his first John Henry. (Benoit Photo)
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Cali.—In his fourth attempt, multi-millionaire Gold Phoenix finally got his win in the Grade, $200,000 John Henry Turf Championship going 1 ¼ miles Saturday at Santa Anita.
Reunited with Umberto Rispoli, Gold Phoenix shot through traffic in the stretch and drew away from a rallying Stay Hot late to win by 1 ¼ lengths. It was the eighth graded stakes victory for Gold Phoenix, a 7-year-old gelding by Belardo whose career began as a 2-year-old in his native Ireland.
For Rispoli, the victory came about 30 minutes after winning the GII City of Hope Mile with Johannes.
“Umberto made the right moves,” said winning trainer Phil D’Amato. “He pressed the button at the top of the lane, and we got the job done.”
Stay Hot, who had $719 more in the win pool than Gold Phoenix, finished second by a neck over Spycatcher (13-1). In last month’s GII Del Mar Handicap. Gold Phoenix edged Stay Hot by a neck to win that race for a fourth consecutive year.
The winning time on firm turf was 1:58.74 following fractions of 23.47, 46.60, 1:10.93 and 1:35.42.
In three previous tries in the John Henry, Gold Phoenix finished third in 2022, fifth in 2023 and fifth in 2024. The win improved his overall record to 28: 10-3-5 with $2,252,587 in earnings. He is owned by Agave Racing Stable, Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stables and Marsha Naify.
“And they say he didn’t like Santa Anita,” said Kevin Bogart of Sterling Stables. “Billy (Koch of Little Red Feather) and I were watching the race upstairs and we were a little nervous at first when he went a little wide early. But once he tucked in and Umberto had him in hand, we felt really good about him. He’s just a really game horse and (Umberto) is a great rider, patient.
Next up for Gold Phoenix is likely a fourth appearance in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
“My horse is in a good zone now. We’ll give him two works here and then ship him down to Del Mar,” D’Amato said. “We’ll run with the Euros.”
Gold Phoenix paid $5.00, $2.60 and $2.20. Stay Hot, ridden by Mike Smith for trainer Peter Eurton, returned $2.60 and $2.20. Spycatcher, with Abel Lezcano up for trainer Mark Glatt, paid $4.20.
UMBERTO RISPOLI, Winning Jockey: “I think the horse to beat today was obviously Stay Hot especially the way he finished last time at Del Mar and, also obviously Mondego as he keeps raising the bar. Those were definitely the two horses to beat ahead of me. I had to decide where I was going to go because we needed to engage outside of Dicey Mo Chara, and I was lucky in this case. And the horse responded well. I really liked him today.”
Happy connections. (Benoit Photo)
PHILIP D’AMATO, Winning Trainer: “My horse is in a good zone right now. We’ll give him two works here and then ship him down to Del Mar. We will give it a go (Breeders’ Cup Turf). He’s coming off two wins in a row now and he’s got extra confidence now. We’ll run with the Euros. I thought Stay Hot might have had better position, but Umberto (Rispoli) made the right moves. He pressed the button at the top of the lane, and we got the job done.”
KEVIN BOGART, STERLING STABLES, PART OWNER: “And they say he didn’t like Santa Anita. Billy (Koch) and I were watching the race upstairs and we were a little nervous at first when he went a little wide early, but once he tucked in and Umberto had him in hand, we felt really good about him. He’s just a really game horse. (Umberto) a great rider, patient. Took the in-course route and saved the ground, and that’s the story right there.”
The winning owners are Agave Racing Stable, Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stables LLC and Marsha Naify.
