Captain Scotty Leads Gate-to-Wire in Palos Verdes

Horses exiting the Joe Hernandez Stakes (G2T) scored across the country Jan. 25. Hours after its winner, Texas Wedge, returned to win the $150,000 World of Trouble Turf Sprint Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Florida on Saturday, the race's fifth-place finisher, Captain Scotty, took the $196,000 Palos Verdes Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park in California.

A return to dirt for the Palos Verdes proved vital for Captain Scotty, as did a lineup that was light on pace. This left him in a position to capitalize against a depleted race when speed horses Ax Man and St. Joe Bay were scratched, reducing the field to four.

So Captain Scotty and jockey Abel Cedillo jumped out in front in the six-furlong race with an opening quarter-mile in :22.39, and though favored Flagstaff dialed up a bit more pressure leaving the turn, leading to a :45.22 half, Captain Scotty just kept finding more. He maintained a one-length edge in midstretch with five furlongs in :56.87 and had enough to turn back a bid by Flagstaff over the final 70 yards. He hit the wire a neck in front, stopping the clock in 1:09.46 on a fast track. He paid $9.80.

Video: Palos Verdes S. (G2)

He was "relaxing pretty good and he finished good," Cedillo said. "My horse, he was fighting, and I knew that (Flagstaff) is tough. So I had to beat that horse."

The Palos Verdes was one of four winning rides Saturday for the rider, who shifted his base from Northern to Southern California last year.

"Well, it feels great. I'm really happy. Thanks, God," he said. "The owners and trainers here, they help me a lot. I'm proud of myself."

There was a gap of six lengths from runner-up Flagstaff to third-place Speed Pass, while longshot Grinning Tiger trailed throughout. The running order never changed from a quarter-mile into the race to the finish. 

The victory provided Captain Scotty with the first black type of his career, earning $120,000 for owners Wachtel Stable and Gary Barber, who bought the horse privately after he was a first-out winner for owner/trainer Tim Ritchey at Laurel Park in December 2017. Peter Miller then took over as trainer. 

Miller won the Palos Verdes for the fourth consecutive year. time. He won it with St. Joe Bay in 2017 and with champion sprinter Roy H in 2018-19.

A 6-year-old gelded son of Quality Road  bred in Kentucky by John and Martha Jane Mulholland, Captain Scotty is out of the stakes-placed Aggressive Chief mare She Is Raging. He is one of six winners from his dam, her first stakes winner, and now her leading money earner. A winner of four of 13 starts, he has made $321,095.

He was a $75,000 yearling purchase by Ritchey at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale when consigned by CandyLand.