Hoppertunity Dominant in Tokyo City Cup
Image:
Description:
Photo: Benoit Photo
Hoppertunity wins the Tokyo City Cup at Santa Anita
To call the field that faced multiple grade 1 winner Hoppertunity in the $100,345 Tokyo City Cup (G3) overmatched might be a bit of an understatement.
Even though he only took command of the race officially as he entered the third and final turn of the 1 1/2-mile dirt test, the 7-year-old son of Any Given Saturday never looked in danger of losing April 8 at Santa Anita Park.
Hoppertunity was well back early as Beaumarchais and Infobedad dueled on the lead through swift fractions of :24.64 and :48.77. He advanced to third under jockey Flavien Prat as the field entered the backstretch for the second time, breezed to the front entering the final bend, and galloped away with ease to win by 6 1/2 lengths in a final time of 2:32.63.
"I knew they were going pretty quick, but I just rode my race," Prat said. "When we turned down the backside, he grabbed the bit and he wanted to go. He's a cool horse. He can run any distance. He's just a pro."
Multiple graded stakes-placed Twentytwentyvision closed from last to pass severely tiring horses and pick up place honors. Moonman, who finished third last time out in a $12,500 claiming race restricted to horses with less than two wins, earned a grade 3 placing, another 5 1/4 lengths back in third.
The Tokyo City Cup was the seventh graded victory for Karl Watson, Mike Pegram, and Paul Weitman's Hoppertunity, who pushed his earnings to more than $4.4 million Sunday.
"This horse really needed a win badly. He's been going against all of these really tough horses the last couple of years," winning trainer Bob Baffert said of the regular graded stakes performer, who, along with his two grade 1 wins, has placed in seven other top-level races. "Sometimes you do this, show them a win, and you can see a change. I could see he was really enjoying himself."
Baffert said Hoppertunity's next start could come in The Gold Cup at Santa Anita (G1) May 26 or the June 9 Brooklyn Invitational (G2) at Belmont Park.
"I'm not sure where we'll go with him." Baffert said. "There's the Gold Cup and there's a race on Belmont Day ... so we'll spot him and just have fun with him. He is a barn favorite. Everyone loves 'Hopper.' You can tell the crowd was getting into it."