River Boyne Much the Best in Rainbow Stakes

With a short field and a challenger who figured to have a clear lead in the $100,000 Rainbow Stakes June 16 at Santa Anita Park, jockey Flavien Prat had his hands full with heavy favorite River Boyne.

Prat guided Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal's River Boyne, who was a bit rank early, wide through the stretch the first time, and the Dandy Man colt settled off early pacesetter Blame the Rider in the first turn of the 1 1/8-mile turf test. Still eager to run, River Boyne never let the frontrunner get more than a length ahead in the backstretch, moved alongside in the second turn, and pulled away steadily in the stretch to win by 2 1/4 lengths under a hand ride.

"The race didn't set up for him, because (Prat) was fighting (him), trying to keep him off that other horse," said winning trainer Jeff Mullins. "That was worrying me, because a lot of times you fight the race out of them, but he ran great.

"Flavien got him to relax and did a great job. He likes firm ground. That's the main thing."

Mullins' comment referenced River Boyne's last start, when he caught a yielding turf course at Churchill Downs May 5 in the American Turf Stakes presented by Ram Trucks (G2T) and finished fifth as the 3-1 favorite. At Santa Anita, however, the dark bay is undefeated in four starts.

Blame the Rider set a pace of :23.60, :47.90, and 1:12.52, but even after it became apparent he was no match for River Boyne, the last-out Singletary Stakes winner fought on to finish a clear second, another 2 1/4 lengths ahead of third-place Arawak, who finished a length ahead of River Boyne in the American Turf. River Boyne finished the distance Saturday in 1:49.18.

"I was pretty comfortable the last part of the race, and he has a great turn of foot," Prat said of the two-time stakes winner, who won the Pasadena Stakes March 17 for his third straight victory. "That's the thing with him. He has such a good turn of foot."

Bred in Ireland by Limestone and Tara Studs, out of the Mark of Esteem mare Clytha, River Boyne has a 4-2-0 record from nine starts and $271,718 in earnings. After a second-place run in his U.S. debut in November at Del Mar—he went winless in his first three starts in Europe—River Boyne broke his maiden by five lengths on the Santa Anita grass in December, came back to win a first-level allowance by 2 3/4 lengths in February, and scored in the Pasadena by a length.