Heavily favored Giver Not a Taker rallied along the rail in the stretch to get up in the final strides and defeat 47-1 shot Crypto Ride by a head in the $101,500 King Glorious Stakes Sunday, the final day of the Winter meet at Los Alamitos.
Ridden for the first time by Flavien Prat, the 2-year-old homebred for J. Kirk and Judy Robison earned his third win from five starts in his first venture beyond seven furlongs, completing the mile in 1:38.16 in a race restricted to juveniles bred or sired in California.
The race was marred early on the backside when Please Focus, who was on the lead, ducked out and unseated jockey Mario Gutierrez. A homebred for owner J. Paul Reddam's Reddam Racing LLC, Please Focus, a gelded son of Mrazek, ran loose afterwards, but was uninjured. Gutierrez also escaped unscathed and walked back to the jockey's room.
A Danzing Candy gelding out of the Kitten's Joy mare Kittens Trip trained by Peter Miller, Giver Not a Taker increased his bankroll to $214,750. He paid $3.20 for the win.
“I wasn't really bothered right then (when Please Focus unseated Gutierrez), but on the last turn I wanted to go on and ask him to run, but the jockey (Tiago Pereira) on the horse (Geezer) in front of me was worried about the loose horse and he didn't know where he was going to go,'' said Prat after his second stakes win – he also took the Grade 1 Starlet Dec. 10 with Faiza – of the meet. “(Crypto Ride) got the jump on us, but my horse got brave and regrouped and made a good run down the lane.''
Crypto Ride, who had defeated $50,000 maidens going six furlongs in his Los Alamitos debut nine days earlier, opened a 1 ½ length lead with an eighth of a mile to run, but couldn't quite last for the upset. He finished five lengths clear of 7-2 second choice Geezer, who had a three race win streak ended.
Merit Song, Amigo G A, Tom and Jazzy, Belly Up, and Please Focus completed the order of finish.
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