Top of the Game Takes Comma to the Top Stakes

Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux put on a master class in race riding Oct. 28 in the $70,000 Comma to the Top Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

After breaking from post 2, Desormeaux hustled improving 4-year-old gelding Top of the Game out of the gate. Then he allowed speedsters El Huerfano and Curlin Rules go by as the field entered the first turn of the mile dirt test, while he saved every inch of ground and tracked in third on the rail.

Still on the rail midway through the second turn, Desormeaux sent Holly and David Wilson's Top of the Game through on the inside, as Curlin Rule and Avanti Bello tried to go around the pacesetter.

Once the son of Desert Party  shot to the front, the race was all but over. Grade 1 winner Hoppertunity—in his first start since the March 25 Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline (G1)—closed in earnest, but he was still 4 1/4 lengths behind the winner at the finish and a nose ahead of Bob Baffert stablemate Irish Freedom for second.

"When Kent's on, he's magic," said winning trainer Vladimir Cerin.

Top of the Game finished off the mile in 1:37.09 to collect his first stakes win and third consecutive victory. The first in the streak came in a Dec. 30 optional-claiming allowance at Santa Anita and the second came in another optional-claiming allowance there Feb. 10.

"That was incredible. He's a nice horse," Desormeaux said. "He's stamping himself as a signature handicap horse. I didn't expect that kind of a run off a layoff."

El Huerfano set the pace, with fractions of :23.53 and :47.11 through a half-mile, but tired to finish sixth. With his move in the second turn, Top of the Game already had a 2 1/2-length lead through six furlongs in 1:11.63.

Bred in Kentucky by the Cantrell Family Partnership out of the A.P. Indy mare Indy Future, Top of the Game now has a 4-1-1 record from 12 starts and $167,420 in earnings. He was a $87,000 purchase by the Wilsons out of Taylor Made Sales Agency's consignment to the Fasig-Tipton summer selected horses or racing age sale in 2016, where he was sold for John Oxley. Prior to the sale, Oxley and trainer Mark Casse raced the son of Desert Party through four starts in 2016 after buying him from Crupi's New Castle Farm for $150,000 from the Ocala Breeders' Sales' March 2105 sale of 2-year-olds in training. Crupi pinhooked Top of the Game into that sale from the OBS August yearling sale, where he was a $95,000 buy from consignor Beth Bayer.