Collected Speeds Wire to Wire at Sunland Park
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Photo: Coady Photography
Collected wins the Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes.
Speedway Stable's Collected powered wire to wire and won the $415,000 Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes for 3-year-old males March 20 at Sunland Park.
The race anchored the track's $1.18 million Fiesta Del Sol program of seven stakes that also included the $200,000 Plum Pretty Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, won by Michael Tabor's Thrilled, trained by Todd Pletcher, whose Gettysburg was second in the Festival of Racing.
Ridden by Martin Garcia for trainer Bob Baffert, Collected spurted from the gate to the immediate lead and set fractions of :23.35 and 47.66 for a half-mile, with Gettysburg in closest pursuit, no more than three-quarters of a length back. Six furlongs went in 1:11.27 before Collected romped a way in the stretch for the easy victory.
"I used a little bit of horse at the start, but once we got the lead he was cruising," Garcia said. "When I asked him to go, he responded nicely. I think we even saved something for his next race."
Gettysburg, the 8-5 second choice, chased in vain but had to settle for the runner-up spot, finishing seven lengths ahead of third-place finisher Concord Fast.
A son of City Zip , Collected won by two widening lengths as the even-money favorite and covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.90 on a fast track.
Collected won the one-mile Sham Stakes (gr. III) Jan. 9 at Santa Anita Park and was fourth in the 1 1/16-mile Southwest Stakes (gr. III) Feb. 15 at Oaklawn Park in his previous start. At age 2, he finished second in the Cecile B. De Mille (gr. IIIT) on the Del Mar turf after taking his debut at Santa Anita.
Owner Peter Fluor indicated the 1 1/4 miles of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) might be a big step for Collected, but deferred to Baffert, who won the Triple Crown last year with American Pharoah , on whether the colt would proceed on the road to the spring classics.
Collected was bred in Kentucky by Runnymede Farm and longtime friend and partner Peter J. Callahan. His dam is the Johannesburg mare Helena Bay.
A selection by bloodstock advisers John Adger and Marette Farrell, Collected was a $170,000 purchase at the 2015 Ocala Breeders’ Sale Co. March sale of 2-year-olds in training.
“When we saw the horse at the sale we said that’s a horse for Bob Baffert,” Fluor said of Collected, who has three wins from five starts.
Thrilled stalked pacesetter Family Tree from second through the early stages of the Plum Pretty and engaged that rival on turn. The pair battled deep into the stretch, but Javier Castellano got the best from Thrilled ($4), who surged clear to win by two lengths, completing 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.35.
The Uncle Mo filly, stakes-placed three times in New York last year, including a pair of graded placings, earned her first stakes win and second victory from six career starts. Family Tree held for second, and K P Wildcat came in third.
The two featured events were the respective replacements for the Sunland Derby (gr. III) and Sunland Park Oaks, points races for the Kentucky Derby and Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) that were canceled earlier this month after an equine herpesvirus outbreak at track in January.