With the late money coming his way, Phil D'Amato's English-bred Motorious ran to it, as he overhauled morning-line favorite Brickyard Ride a furlong from home and waltzed to a 2¼-length win in the $100,000 San Simeon Stakes (G3) Sunday at Santa Anita.
Ridden by Flavien Prat, Motorious got about 6 ½ furlongs down the hillside turf course in 1:11.34.
As expected, comebacking Brickyard Ride bounded to the early lead from his rail post and Motorious, who broke sharply from midpack, sat second in the run down the hill, two lengths back at the half-mile pole, but Prat engaged the leader at the dirt crossing and the two battled head and head to midstretch, where Motorious asserted his superiority.
“He broke well and I was able to get myself right behind Brickyard Ride, so I was pleased with that,” said Prat, who notched his second stakes win on the day. “Obviously, I can't let Brickyard Ride do his own thing in the first part, but I kind of wanted to get the jump on him and kind of surprise him. From that point, my horse was really brave and got to the wire.”
Second down the hill in the restricted Clockers' Corner Stakes Jan. 29, Motorious, the second choice on the morning line at 5-2, was off at 3-2 in a field of seven older horses and paid $5 for the win.
Owned by Anthony Fanticola, the 5-year-old British-bred Muhaarar gelding notched his second win from four hillside tries and got his first North American stakes win as well. Currently three for six with D'Amato in Southern California, Motorious is now 5-3-2 from 13 starts overall. With the San Simeon winner's share of $60,000, he increased his earnings to $204,944.
“Brickyard Ride is a very nice horse,” said D'Amato. “I thought maybe if we were going to have a chance to beat him, it would be off the layoff. We had a really nice post (Sunday), last time we had the one-hole and we were stuck inside. Flavien got him in the race and in the right position to get the job done and he did a masterful job.”
A joint third, about 3½ lengths off the lead at the dirt crossing, Anarchist rallied for second, finishing a half length in front of Brickyard Ride.
Idle since May 29, multiple graded stakes winner Brickyard Ride, the 2-1 morning line favorite, finished a half length in front of Whatmakessammyrun.
Fractions on the race were :21.46, :43.01, and 1:05.25.
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