Although his trainer was 31 miles across town watching the Rams versus the Eagles at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., heavily favored Endlessly knew what to do when it counted in Sunday's $200,000 Zuma Beach Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita as he kept to his task and overhauled his well-meant stablemate Ngannou to win going away by 2¼ lengths.
Bred in Kentucky by Mrs. Jerry Amerman and owned by Amerman Racing LLC, Endlessly, trained by Michael McCarthy and ridden by Juan Hernandez, remained unbeaten in three starts as he got the one-mile Zuma Beach for 2-year-olds in 1:34.52.
With Ngannou, Formidable Man, and Boltage all ensuring a quick pace, it looked as though things would set up perfectly for Endlessly, who had rallied for a pair of one mile turf victories this summer at Del Mar, but a quarter mile out, he appeared to be in deep water as Ngannou and Antonio Fresu opened up three lengths, but Hernandez stayed cool and Endlessly ended up an easy winner.
“Around the three eighths pole when I was ready to start making my move, I was a little surprised because he is the kind of horse when you ask him, he picks it up right away,” said Hernandez, who has been aboard for all three of Endlessly's wins. “But today, it took him a couple of jumps to figure out that he had to start making his move.
“I wanted to go outside but then I saw the rail open for me and saw the opportunity to come through and make up more ground, so I decided to come between horses. My horse was really professional. He came through the horses really well and after that he just passed everybody like (he has) the last couple of races. He's improving with every race.”
In a racing rarity, Endlessly has now won all three of his races, most recently the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Turf (G3) on Sept. 10, by identical margins of 2¼ lengths. Off at 4-5 in a field of eight juvenile colts, Endlessly paid $3.60 for the win.
By Oscar Performance out of the Langfuhr mare Dream Fuhrever, Endlessly, with the Zuma Beach winner's cut of $120,000, increased his earnings to $229,200.
Off at 7-1, Ngannou, in just his second career start, finished 1¼ lengths in front of Grand Mo the First, who rallied from last.
In from Gulfstream Park and ridden by Emisael Jaramillo, Grand Mo the First was a half length in front of longshot Ace of Clubs.
Fractions on the race were :22.86, :46.27, 1:09.99 and 1:22.38.
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