Intrepido wins the American Pharoah (Benoit Photo)
With the win, the Maximus Mischief ridgling earned a fees-paid berth to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Oct. 31 at Del Mar
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif. — Intrepido and jockey Hector Berrios surged past odds-favorite Desert Gate in the final strides and prevailed in Saturday’s Grade I, $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes presented by DK Sports for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita. With the win, Intrepido earned a fees-paid berth to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Oct. 31 at Del Mar.
Trained by Jeff Mullins, Intrepido (8-1) broke right with the field but then took a position stalking the pace while saving ground along the rail. Desert Gate, the 4-5 favorite and one of four runners trained by Bob Baffert, would go to the lead with stablemate Kristofferson (9-5) pressing on his outside down the backstretch. Desert Gate, who had never previously raced around two turns, went the opening quarter mile 22.83 seconds and a half mile in 46.76.
Desert Gate would continue on the lead while receiving pressure through six furlongs in 1:10.97. Near the quarter pole, Intrepido was still surrounded by horses and Berrios appeared to stand up briefly in the irons when running up on the heels.
“It was a bit of a complicated race,” Berrios said. “I tried to go to the front, but I saw Juan (on favorite Desert Gate) break first, so I settled into second. From the first turn, I had to ease back a little, and then again around 600 meters I had to hold.”
Intrepido finally got out for racing room at the head of the stretch while in the meantime, Desert Gate was facing a fresh challenge on his inside from another Baffert runner, Plutarch (8-1). Desert Gate never let that rival pass, but rolling on the outside came Intrepido, who surged to the front in the final strides and won by three-quarters of a length.
“When I made my move to the outside he responded, although not very strongly at first,” said Berrios, a 38-year-old native of Santiago, Chile. “When I asked him again, he responded and produced an impressive change of pace. He flew down the stretch. He’s an amazing horse.”
Intrepido won in a time of 1:43.67 for owners Dutch Girl Holdings LLC and Irving Ventures LLC. A ridgling by Maximus Mischief, Intrepido was purchased for $385,000 at the OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training.
Intrepido was fourth when debuting going 5 ½ furlongs at Del Mar on July 26. Stretched out to a mile for his second start, Intrepido dragged Berrios to the lead and drew off in the stretch to win by 3 ¼ lengths.
“Well, we weren’t quite sure what was in his head this time around,” Mullins said. “(In his last start), he broke, took the lead by himself and Hector just went with him. Everything worked out fine. But we knew if we went to the lead today we were going to get into a dogfight and that was one thing I was trying hard to avoid. I just asked Hector, ‘Do you think this horse can rate?’ He said, ‘No problem.’
“He’s a nice horse, a really nice horse.”
As for Desert Gate, it was a game effort on the lead after having never gone beyond seven furlongs. Most recently, Desert Gate was a troubled second in the GI Del Mar Futurity going seven furlongs Sept. 7.
“He was traveling very comfortably and so well,” Hernandez said. “He gave me everything he had. He opened up a couple lengths. It was the first time he was going a mile and a sixteenth so it was a little long for him the first time.. He’s young and he’s got a lot of races to come and a lot of victories as well.”
Intrepido paid $19.60, $6.00 and $4.40. Desert Gate returned $3.00 and $2.10. Plutarch, ridden by Kazushi Kimura, paid $3.60.
