Taking
full advantage of a race devoid of pace, Aggie Engineer led throughout to earn
the biggest victory of his career in the $100,000 Native Diver Handicap
Saturday at Hollywood
Park.
Able
to get away with extremely slow fractions, the 5-year-old E
Dubai gelding and the Dixieland Band mare Papalma
became a graded stakes winner with the 1 ¾ length score over Cushion Track.
Ridden
by Joe Talamo, Aggie Engineer was the second consecutive gate-to-wire winner in
the Grade III. Mast Track won in similar fashion in 2009.
Trained
by Paddy Gallagher, who also saddled third-place finisher Soul Candy, Aggie
Engineer, the 3-1 second choice, has won six of 16 for owner-breeders Ward and
Roberta Williford. The $60,000 payday boosted his earnings to $268,280.
Giving
both jockey and trainer their first win in the Native Diver, which was run for
the 32nd time Saturday, Aggie Engineer paid $8, $4.60 and $3.20.
Spurrier,
an 8-1 shot, rallied wide for second, a half-length in front of Soul Candy, who
had won the California Cup Classic Oct. 30 in his first synthetic start.
Trained
by Bob Baffert, who remains one win shy of 2,000 in his Hall of Fame career,
Spurrier paid $8.20 and $5.20. Soul Candy’s show price was $3.40.
Dakota
Phone, the beneficiary of very quick fractions when capturing the Breeders’ Cup
Dirt Mile with a last-to-first rally at 37-1 Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs, was
fourth as the 8-5 choice.
The
5-year-old Zavata gelding finished a half-length behind Soul Candy, then came
Achak, Romp and Philatelist. Dakota Phone is winless in eight attempts at nine
furlongs.
A
pace pressing main track winner Oct. 22 in his previous outing, Aggie Engineer
was able to go a lot slower this time around. He went 25.55 seconds for the
opening quarter mile, 50.52 for the half, 1:15.49 for six furlongs and 1:39.26
for the mile. The final time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:51.04.
“He
had a magnificent trip,’’ said Talamo. “Obviously on paper he was the speed of
the race. He’s such a great horse to ride and I tried to be a good pilot. I
just let him do his own thing.
“He
was just cruising around there and when I asked him to go he did. Usually when
there’s no speed, somebody always goes. Fortunately it worked out well today.
He got the job done real nice. It was fun.’’
Racing
continues Sunday. Post time is 12:30 p.m.
The
main attraction is the final public appearance in California
by Zenyatta. The brilliant mare, who won 19 of 20 and more than $7.3 million in
purses, will be honored between the sixth and seventh races Sunday.
Zenyatta
will be in the paddock around 3 p.m. local time, then, approximately 15 minutes
later, will walk to the track and parade in front of both the grandstand and
clubhouse area.
Members
of her team, including owners Jerry and Ann Moss, trainer John Shirreffs,
racing manager Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs and jockey Mike Smith, will also be
acknowledged.
In
addition, Smith, who rode Zenyatta in her last 17 races, will be available to
sign autographs. The session begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Paddock Tote Board.
The
feature race is the $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap, a Grade II at 1 1/16 miles over
Cushion Track. The field of eight fillies and mares includes defending champion
Zardana. She is trained by Shirreffs, who has won the Bayakoa a record five
times.