Acclimate Returns in John Henry Turf Championship

After winning a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series race, The Ellwood Johnston Trust and Timmy Time Racing's Acclimate is scheduled to make his final prep for the World Championships in the $200,000 John Henry Turf Championship Stakes (G2T) Sept. 28 at Santa Anita Park.

The 5-year-old Acclamation  gelding was a frontrunning winner of the Aug. 17 Del Mar Handicap Presented by The Japan Racing Association (G2T), where he held off returning contenders Oscar Dominguez and Ritzy A.P. to score an automatic berth in the Nov. 2 Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) back at Santa Anita.

The Del Mar Handicap followed an 11th-place finish in the July 26 California Dreamin' Stakes at Del Mar, where the Phil D'Amato trainee was off the pace and faded.

"Once he gets up there, he can run all day," D'Amato said after the Del Mar Handicap. "There was no perfect prep for this race, but if I didn't get that (California Dreamin' race) in him, no matter how ugly it looked on paper, I don't think I would have gotten this result."

Acclimate will shorten up slightly from the Del Mar Handicap's 1 3/8-mile distance, as the John Henry Turf Championship is 1 1/4 miles and begins on the hillside turf course before looping around the flat. D'Amato also saddled the gelding to win at 1 3/4 miles in the June 23 San Juan Capistrano Stakes (G3T), in which Oscar Dominguez was second.

Oscar Dominguez, trained by Richard Baltas for Nancy Messineo and Bruce Sands, will look to score his first stakes win after finishing second in two graded events. Calumet Farm's homebred Ritzy A.P., trained by Dan Blacker, will try to leave behind two third-place finishes from the Del Mar Handicap and July 21 Eddie Read Stakes (G2T) at Del Mar. The last win for Ritzy A.P. came more than a year ago in the Joseph T. Grace Handicap at Santa Rosa.

LNJ Foxwoods' United missed the Del Mar Handicap because of a virus but will have the chance to step up in the John Henry Turf Championship. Trainer Richard Mandella sent the Giant's Causeway gelding out to a 1 1/4-length victory in a 1 1/8-mile July 17 allowance at Del Mar, in which United came from sixth. The 4-year-old was second, beaten three-quarters of a length, in his stakes debut, the May 25 Charles Whittingham Stakes (G2T) at Santa Anita.

KMN Racing's Grecian Fire made the grade this year on the all-weather surface at Golden Gate Fields when he took the May 27 All American Stakes (G3). The 5-year-old Unusual Heat gelding picked up a stakes win on the turf two starts later when he rallied from ninth to take the California Dreamin' Stakes.

Completing the John Henry Turf Championship field is California Dreamin' runner-up The Street Fighter, as well as grade 2-placed horses Cleopatra's Strike and Ya Gotta Wanna.

Entries: John Henry Turf Championship S. (G2T)

Santa Anita Park, Saturday, September 28, 2019, Race 7

• Grade II
• 1 1/4m
• Downhill turf
• $200,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 3:38 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Ya Gotta Wanna (KY)	Geovanni Franco	121	Philip D'Amato	12/1
2	2Oscar Dominguez (IRE)	Joseph Talamo	121	Richard Baltas	5/1
3	3Cleopatra's Strike (ON)	Abel Cedillo	121	Philip D'Amato	7/2
4	4Ritzy A. P. (KY)	Martin Garcia	121	Dan Blacker	8/1
5	5United (KY)	Flavien Prat	121	Richard E. Mandella	3/1
6	6Grecian Fire (CA)	Mike E. Smith	121	J. Keith Desormeaux	4/1
7	7The Street Fighter (CA)	Edwin A. Maldonado	121	Bruce Headley	12/1
8	8Acclimate (CA)	Victor Espinoza	125	Philip D'Amato	4/1