Stilleto Boy seeks his first Grade 1 victory and trainer Ed Moger Jr. his second in the $400,000 Hollywood Gold Cup for 3-year-olds and up at a mile and a quarter on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30.
A four-year-old gelded son of Shackleford, Stilleto Boy is scheduled to work Monday for the Gold Cup, according to Ed, 66, who trains the chestnut for his younger brother, owner Steve.
Winner of the G2 Californian in front-running fashion April 30, Stilleto Boy worked a half-mile in 50 seconds May 16 under leading jockey Juan Hernandez, who rides in the Gold Cup.
“He's only won three races in his life, so a Grade 1 win would be significant for the horse as well me,” said Moger, whose only previous Grade 1 victory came when Stormy Lucy owned by his brother stunned 13 rivals at 65-1 in Del Mar's 2015 Matriarch, getting up by a head under a classic ride by Kent Desormeaux.
“It was a perfect ride and we wouldn't have won without a perfect ride like that,” Moger reflected. “He's a great rider.”
As to strategy for the Gold Cup, Moger said Stilleto Boy is “a good horse. We're not going to send him or anything. We'll get him out there, get him into the race and play it by ear.
“In the Californian (which had a four-horse field), I told Juan to kind of hustle him into the race, and then just play it by ear.
“He got a pretty easy lead and that's how it was, but I think his best races have been when he's halfway close to the pace (although he did win twice wire-to-wire before the Californian).”
Humility aside, Ed gives “all of the credit” to Steve for buying Stilleto Boy with the highest bid of $420,000 last July at the Fasig-Tipton Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale.
Ed has a laudatory resume of his own, however, with more than 1,900 victories as a presence in both Northern and Southern California going on half a century. He began training in 1976.
Prior to his victory in the Californian, Stilleto Boy was third in three straight Grade 1's, the Santa Anita Handicap presented by Yaamava' Resort & Casino, the Pegasus World Cup Invitational presented by 1/ST BET and the Runhappy Malibu Stakes.
Before those races, he was fifth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic and second in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes.
Overall, Stilleto Boy has a 3-3-6 record from 15 starts with earnings of $1,031,175.
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