J B Strikes Back captures the inaugural running of the Laffit Pincay Jr. (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif. — In the first-ever running of the Grade II, $200,000 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes, J B Strikes Back lit up the tote board when scoring as the second-longest shot on in the field at 16-1 on opening day of the Santa Anita Classic Meet.
The 1 1/16-mile Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes was re-named this year in honor of the legendary Hall of Fame jockey, who won 9,530 races and 14 Santa Anita riding titles before his retirement in 2003. The race was previously run as the San Antonio Stakes from 1935 through 2023. Pincay, 77, was on hand to present the trophy in the winner’s circle.
J B Strikes Back, who was making his stakes debut for trainer Doug O’Neill, took the lead on the backstretch and held off all comers to score by 1 ¼ lengths under Antonio Fresu. A 3 -year-old gelding by Goldencents, J B Strikes back is owned by Purple Rein Racing, which is led by Janie Buss of the Buss family that owns the Los Angeles Lakers.
J B Strikes Back and Ashcroft (9-2) raced side-by-side on the lead around the clubhouse turn before J B Strikes Back eventually inched ahead of that rival down the backstretch.
On the second turn, second-choice Tarantino (7-2) ranged up to the eventual winner but never went by. J B Strikes Back was kept to task through the lane before crossing the wire in a winning time of 1:36.92. Fractions for the race were 22.71, 45.67 and 1:09.99 for six furlongs.
American Admiral (20-1) rallied for third under Kazushi Kimura with Express Train (9-2) rounding out the superfecta. The 3-2 favorite, Katonah, raced evenly throughout and and checked in sixth under Frankie Dettori.
J B Strikes Back paid $34.80, $13.60 and $8.80. Tarantino, ridden by Edwin Maldonado for trainer Peter Eurton, returned $5.40 and $4.00. American Admiral, trained by Tim Yakteen, returned $8.80.
The win was the third in a row for J B Strikes Back, which improved his record to 9: 4-0-0 with $119,180 in earnings. .He entered off a first-level allowance win going a mile at Del Mar on Nov. 23.
GRADE II, $200,000 LAFFIT PINCAY, JR. STAKES
JOCKEY QUOTES
ANTONIO FRESU, J B STRIKES BACK, WINNER: “My trip was great, amazing it was what we had planned. What about this training performance by Doug (O’Neill)? This horse he kept improving and now he is in graded stakes, that was amazing. This horse almost went wire to wire. I think I still had something underneath, so there is some room for improvement. I feel very excited to see where he goes next. I liked him a lot. I won on him once and he won easily. He always just did it so easily and you never knew what else was there. Today, what I was thinking was if the track was fast, to get a nice trip out in front, or be pretty close. I thought the horse had a good chance. He proved to us his ability.”
TRAINER QUOTES
DOUG O’NEILL, J B STRIKES BACK, WINNER: “It’s such an honor to win this race. My mom Dixie was really good friends with Laffit Pincay Jr.’s mom and we are really good friends with his brother Alonso, so the Pincay family really means a lot to us. He still looks like he can still ride today, it’s amazing and a huge honor. Janie Buss and the whole Buss family they are so generous. She donates all of the earnings of any of her beautiful horses that make any money to different causes. This is really to her because she wanted to take a chance after his last couple of efforts. We took a chance, and it worked out perfect.”
NOTES: The winning owner is Janie Buss Purple Rein Racing. The Buss family owns the Los Angeles Lakers.
