Flamboyant Keeps Rolling in San Marcos
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Flamboyant and Brice Blanc take the San Marcos Stakes.
David Bienstock and Chuck Winner's Flamboyant overtook Gaga A in the stretch and won his second straight grade II turf race in the $200,000 San Marcos Stakes (gr. IIT) Feb. 6 at Santa Anita Park.
The 5-year-old Peer Gynt gelding won by three-quarters of a length and finished 1 1/4 miles under Brice Blanc in 2:01.58 on turf rated as good. Uruguayan-bred Gaga A, the only female in the field, held on for second.
Trained by Patrick Gallagher, Flamboyant won the San Gabriel (gr. IIT) last month at 46-1 odds, halting a 10-race winless streak stretching back to his U.S. debut in the La Puente Stakes in April 2014. Off at 5-2 Saturday, he returned $7.60, $3.60, and $2.80. Gaga A paid $12.60 and $7.80, and Quick Casablanca (CHI) returned $12.40 to show.
"He's doing really well in the mornings," Blanc said after the race. "Usually, I can tell when a horse has a tendency to bounce, but he's actually doing as well, I don't know about better, but as well as he was doing before the San Gabriel. I know he loves this turf course."
Blanc said the stretch out to 1 1/4 miles following the 1 1/8-mile San Gabriel was not a worry.
"The distance is fine for him. I was just hoping for a good trip and that's pretty much what happened. I had a great trip," Blanc said. "He gave me his best like he always has since I've been on him."
With Flamboyant relaxing in fifth, then sixth, in the early going, pacesetter Hay Dude's quick opening quarter (:23.72) played perfectly to the winner's late-running style.
"The first quarter mile was quick enough for him," said Gallagher. "Down the backside, Brice got him into an even better spot and by the three-eighths pole, he was in a perfect spot and he was good enough to get there."
Gaga A cut an impressive figure as she skimmed the rail turning for home and wrested the lead from Hay Dude, but couldn't hold off Flamboyant's charge inside the sixteenth pole. Off at 16-1 with Mario Gutierrez, Gaga A finished three-quarters of a length in front of 45-1 shot Quick Casablanca, the 2012 Horse of the Year in Chile.
Bred in France by SNC Regnier and San Gabriel Investments from of the Until Sundown mare Relicia Bere, Flamboyant took his record to 5-3-4 from 19 career starts.
Class Leader was fourth, followed by Southern Freedom, Hay Dude, Power Foot, Chiropractor, and Abbey Vale. Big Cazanova and Ganesh were scratched.