Trainer
Jeff Bonde and owners Alan Klein and Philip Lebherz picked up their second
stakes win of the meet when Smiling Tiger captured the $100,000 Lazaro Barrera
Memorial on Saturday at Hollywood
Park.
Bonde,
Klein and Lebherz, winners of the Harry Henson on April 21 with longshot
Excessive Passion – a turf race in which Smiling Tiger was third in his 2010
debut – saw the chestnut colt go wire-to-wire in the Grade III Barrera.
Ridden
to perfection by Victor Espinoza, the 3-year-old son of Hold That Tiger out of
the Cahill
Road mare Shandra
Smiles broke quickly with the Bob Baffert trained duo of Concord Point and
Macias in close proximity.
Macias,
shortening up in distance and switching to the main track after a pair of turf
routes, had room to rally along the inside early in the stretch, but Espinoza
tightened things up a bit. This seemed to intimidate Macias, who, ultimately,
angled outside the winner, but faltered in the final sixteenth and had to
settle for fourth.
Concord
Point, the 5-2 favorite, made another bid of his own approaching the wire, but
Smiling Tiger, the 5-2 second choice, had enough left to prevail by a
half-length. The final time for the seven furlongs was 1:21.34.
Domonation,
returning to the scene of his only win, finished well in the middle of the
track to gain third, 1 ½ lengths behind Concord Point. A gray son of Maria’s
Mon. Domonation has not finished off the board in three races on Hollywood
Park’s
Cushion Track.
A
$40,000 yearling purchase in 2008, Smiling Tiger, who was third behind eventual
Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky in both the Best Pal, a Grade II, and Del Mar
Futurity, a Grade 1, last summer, has won three of six. He’s earned $183,864.
Smiling
Tiger, whose two previous wins had come at Golden Gate Fields, paid $7.60, $3.80
and $3.20. Concord Point, who was looking for his third victory in four
attempts, paid $3.60 and $3.00. The show price on Domonation, who was nearly
10-1, was $4.80.
“The
first time back we took a little chance running on turf because we wanted to
get a race into him,’’ said Bonde. The Henson was Smiling Tiger’s first race
since the Del Mar Futurity last Sept. 7.
“He
had a rough trip on the inside. He was pretty wild in the paddock, but he was
more professional today. I was confident he was going to run his race.’’
Joel
Rosario, who rode Domonation, won three times on Saturday. He took the first
with Enriched, third with Uncle Don and ninth on Sweet And Jazzy.
A
half-brother to Lava Man, a three time winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup
(2005-2007), Enriched won the $55,000 turf allowance by 9 ¼ lengths as the 2-5
favorite. It was the fifth win in 11 races on grass for the 5-year-old gelded
son of High Brite and the Nostalgia’s Star mare L’il Ms. Leonard. He’s owned by
W.C. Racing, Westside Rentals.com and Neil Haymes and trained by Doug O’Neill.
The
wire-to-wire victory by Uncle Don in a $43,000 allowance was his fourth in a
row for owners Antonio Ocampo and Ulises Olguin and trainer Richard Rosales.
The 5-year-old is a California
bred son of Lemon Drop Kid out of the multiple stakes winning Moscow Ballet
mare Soviet Problem. The win Saturday was his first race on turf.
The
fifth week of the spring-summer meet concludes with a nine race card Sunday.
Post time is 1 p.m.