Salesman and Flavien Prat capture the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Mike Willman/Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.— French native Flavien Prat, who got his start in North America while in the employ of Richard Mandella, made it look easy at the marathon distance of a mile and five eighths, as he pointed Mandella’s Irish-bred Salesman to a facile 8 ¼ length victory in Saturday’s Grade II, $250,000 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, race one on a blockbuster Breeders’ Cup Day card at Santa Anita.
Allowed to “walk the dog” on the front end through splits of 23.66, 48.30, 1:112.87, 1:38.87, 2:04.19 and a mile and one half in 2:30.50, Salesman closed the deal on the race result heading to the far turn for the final time, as he eased off to a five length advantage over Win the Day and Antonio Fresu with three furlongs to run and turned the rest of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance into a mere procession.
Winless in three starts for Mandella in Southern California, Salesman was most recently third going a mile and one sixteenth on dirt in the restricted Los Alamitos Special Sept. 17.
The second choice in a field of five at 3-1, Salesman paid $8.60, $4.00, and $3.60.
Owned by Wertheimer and Frere, for whom Prat rode early in his career in France, Salesman, a 6-year-old gelding, picked up his first group or graded stakes win and improved his overall race record to 26-4-6-5. With the winner’s share of $155,000, he increased his earnings to $335,300.
Although he set out after the winner leaving the half mile pole, Win the Day could make no impact and finished second by some 20 lengths over Kiss Today Goodbye. Off at 7-2, Win the Day paid $4.60 and $4.00.
Kiss Today Goodbye, ridden by Victor Espinoza, finished another 23 lengths in front of longshot Serifos and paid $4.20 to show while off at 5-1.
European invader Siskany, an English-bred trained by Charles Appleby and ridden by William Buick, was never a factor at 4-5 as he finished last by a distance.
$250,000, GRADE II, THE THOROUGHBRED AFTERCARE ALLIANCE
JOCKEY QUOTES
FLAVIEN PRAT, SALESMAN, WINNER: “I was just cruising. He was in a nice rhythm, and he ran a great race. I was watching the workouts and I could see that he was the pacemaker for some of Mr. Mandella horses, it looked like he was training outstanding, so I was confident. It’s nice to win for Mr. Mandella and Wertheimer and Frere, I use to ride for them in France, we had a good connection and it is good to get a winner for them.”
TRAINER QUOTES
RICHARD MANDELLA, SALESMAN, WINNER: “The horse has been training really well. We decided in his workouts to put him on the lead and he really liked that. That was the plan today.”
NOTES: The winning owners are Wertheimer and Frere.
