In a thrilling stretch duel, Jose Ortiz, aboard Law Professor, managed to outduel Kent Desormeaux aboard favored Beyond Brilliant, taking Sunday's $200,000 Santa Anita Mathis Mile Stakes by a half length. Originally carded on turf, the Mathis Mile was one of six opening day races at the Arcadia, Calif., track shifted to dirt due to heavy rains over the past five days. Accordingly, the Santa Anita Mathis Mile result will be reviewed later this week by the American Graded Stakes Committee, which will determine if the race will remain a Grade 2 for statistical purposes.
Trained by Michael McCarthy, Law Professor, who came off a five-month freshening to rally and win a first condition allowance going a mile on turf Nov. 27 at Del Mar, was off at 4-1 in a field of nine sophomores and paid $10.20, $4.60 and $3.20.
Owned by Twin Creeks Racing Stables, LLC, Law Professor, who was making his second graded stakes start, tracked Beyond Brilliant to the far turn, and drew alongside a quarter mile from home in a hard-earned victory. Law Professor, a colt by Constitution, now has three wins from seven starts and with the winner's share of $120,000, increased his earnings to $226,640.
A winner of the G1 Hollywood Derby in his most recent start, Beyond Brilliant was off at 7-5 and paid $3.20 and $2.60 while finishing some 8 ½ lengths clear of Tarantino.
Off at 8-1 with Juan Hernandez up, Tarantino paid $5.20 to show.
Fractions on the race were 23.26, 46.65, 1:10.95 and 1:23.62.
“I thought he was much better than what he showed,” said Ortiz. “When he made the lead he started wandering around, he didn't give me one hundred percent. I think he's a little bit better than what he showed today. I was showing my rein to change it up and keep his attention. When I did that he responded well, I caught his attention and kept doing that to the wire.”
“He is a little bit on the difficult side,” said McCarthy. “He hasn't quite totally figured it out yet. I thought his last win at Del Mar was very professional. I was looking forward to running him on the grass today, I also thought about running him on the dirt at Los Alamitos. I thought he broke well here when he broke his maiden, but he really hasn't put it all together yet, when he does, I think it will be very exciting. It's great to have a horse that is as versatile as him, I don't know what it holds for him just yet but after what we saw today we may think about putting a little blinker back on him. We have a lot of options at play, it's very exciting.”
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