Man O Rose with Edwin Maldonado aboard. (Benoit Photo)
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.—Man O Rose became a dual-surface stakes winner Saturday after gamely holding off a hard-charging Lovesick Blues by a nose to win the $100,000 California Flag Handicap for statebreds sprinting about 6 ½ furlongs on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita.
With Edwin Maldonado aboard for trainer Jeff Mullins, Man O Rose (2-1) enjoyed an ideal trip stalking in second down the hill behind quick fractions of 20.88 and 42.43 seconds set by Flyover (5-1), who would ultimately finish second to last Man O Rose took the lead near the eighth pole and had just enough left to fend off Lovesick Blues, who was rallying on the far outside.
“It was perfect…my horse relaxed, like he almost never does,” Maldonado said. “Once he relaxed, I knew I had a lot of horse turning for home. It was just a matter of crossing (the dirt) path and guiding him straight.”
Maldonado added he wasn’t sure in deep stretch if Lovesick Blues was making his usual late run or not.
“I was just riding. I knew Lovesick Blues would be the only horse really closing and was the horse to beat…I was trying to get as much distance from him as I could without going too fast.”
Lovesick Blues (5-2), ridden by Geovanni Franco and trained by Librado Barocio, finished 1 ¼ lengths clear of Book Smart (6-1) in third. The winning time was 1:11.07.
“He is a special racehorse,” Mullins said of the winner. “We were a little worried about the downhill course because he is just funny about horses being around him. One side or the other. I told Edwin, ‘You’re going to have horses all around you today, so you better have a plan.’ But it worked out good. He had a target and moved into the clear and got the job done.”
A 5-year-old gelding by Stanford, Man O Rose is a homebred for B & B Zeitz Stables. This was his third stakes win and upped his record to 16: 9-3-0 with $440,965 in earnings. On Sept. 13, Man O Rose won the one mile E.B. Johnston Stakes on at Los Alamitos for the second year in a row.
As for Lovesick Blues, the California Flag was designed to be a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at six furlongs on dirt on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Trainer and owner Librado Barocio was satisfied with how things turned out.
“The whole objective was to get him to close…today he had good weight, maybe a little on the heavy side, but this should cut him down to the right fighting weight. He ran good,” Barocio said.
Man O Rose paid $6.40, $3.40 and $2.60. Lovesick Blues returned $4.00 and $2.80. Book Smart, ridden by Mike Smith for trainer Bob Hess Jr., paid $4.00.
Live racing resumes Sunday with a 10-race card starting at 1 p.m. PT. There will be a $47,317 carryover in the $2 Pick Six starting with the fifth race at approximately 3 p.m. PT. For more information, visit santaanita.com.
