Hunt Overcomes Trouble to Win Eddie Read

Michael House's Hunt (IRE) provided a moment of drama in the stretch, but even a blocked-off trip wasn't enough to prevent the Dark Angel gelding from winning his first graded race.

Stuck behind a pair of frontrunners in the stretch of the $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes (G2T) July 22 at Del Mar, Hunt and jockey Flavien Prat finally found an opening between horses and surged to the wire to win by a length over heavy favorite Ashleyluvssugar. 

In the final turn of the 1 1/8-mile grass test, Ashleyluvssugar and Gary Stevens went three wide in a bid to pass the frontrunning pair of Kenjisstorm and Mr. Roary, while Prat appeared to have a mountain of horse underneath him locked in behind the top two.

For a moment it appeared as if the Phil D'Amato-trained Hunt would not find a way through, but Kenjisstorm began to tire on the inside and Mr. Roary began to lug out, which gave Prat his opening. Hunt hit the wire in 1:47.62, after Kenjisstorm set fractions of :24.12, :48.16, and 1:11.56 through six furlongs.

"I don't know if this was my best ride today," Prat said. "He had been training so well and I know how he can finish. I thought he'd run well here. I moved up inside and thought they'd leave a hole for me, but it wasn't happening there for a bit.

"I had to wait, but when we saw it, he was there. He finished strong."

It was the fifth graded try for Hunt, who made his first start of  the year July 4 in the American Stakes (G3T) at Santa Anita Park, where he ran fifth off a more than seven-month layoff.

"All along this was our plan, to use the American as a prep race for this," D'Amato said. "He got a little bit in trouble in that race, through no one's fault, and I think the mile and an eighth and adding blinkers helped this horse's focus.

"We'll put our heads together and decide on whether to run him back in the Del Mar Mile (G2T) or stretch him out in the (1 3/8-mile) Del Mar Handicap (G2T). One of the two."

Mr. Roary dug in after pressing the pace and lost second by just a half-length behind multiple graded winner Ashleyluvssugar. They were followed by Kenjisstorm, Up With the Birds, Wanstead Gardens, and Abbey Vale, to complete the order of finish.

"I had Santiago (Gonzalez, aboard Mr. Roary) measured, but the winner got loose," Stevens said.

Bred in Ireland by Michael O'Callaghan, out of the Vettori mare Mansiya, Hunt now has a 6-5-3 record from 22 starts and $398,419 in earnings.