Baffert Scores 14th Del Mar Futurity With Game Winner
Image:
Description:
Photo: BENOIT PHOTO
Game Winner wins the Del Mar Futurity
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert came into the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity (G1) confident both of his entries were talented colts, but he felt Gary and Mary West's Game Winner would be better around two turns.
Turns out the Candy Ride colt is pretty good sprinting, too.
Off as the 8-5 second choice Sept. 3 against 3-5 favorite and stablemate Roadster, Game Winner closed late on the outside to pass runaway pacesetter Rowayton and win by 1 1/2 lengths under jockey Mario Gutierrez. Roadster, who made a simultaneous move in the turn with Game Winner, could not match his stablemate's kick and finished third, a half-length behind Rowayton.
"(Baffert) told me, 'You know how to ride good horses. Go ahead and ride him like you can,'" said Gutierrez, who rarely gets mounts from the Hall of Fame trainer. "He said he wanted me to give him a little help out of the gate, then he said he thought he'd be strong for the finish. He was so right."
Rowayton, asked for run out of the gate by jockey Drayden Van Dyke, sprinted 4 1/2 lengths clear of the field in the backstretch and set fractions of :22.53 and :45.35 through a half-mile. Rowayton still held a 2 1/2-length advantage with a furlong to run, but struggled to switch leads in the stretch and could not hold off Game Winner, who finished off the seven-furlong test in 1:23.18.
"That was the plan—to just go for it," Van Dyke said. "He did and he ran good. He fought me on changing leads ... but he'll learn. He'll get better."
The victory was Baffert's record 14th in the Futurity. Game Winner debuted Aug. 18 with a 5 3/4-length win sprinting six furlongs at Del Mar.
"Going down the backside (Rowayton) was way out there, and sometimes, if you get out there like that, you can steal a race," Baffert said. "I just hoped my guys knew they were in good spots. I knew they'd have to sprint home. I knew coming in that (Game Winner) was coming back a little quick, but he's a big, strong, heavy horse, and I knew he could handle it. I'd rather run him again than keep working him.
"I'm a little disappointed in (Roadster), but it was only his second outing and sometimes the second out ... they can get a little flat on you."
Jockey Mike Smith also expressed surprise in Roadster's performance.
"I don't know what to say," Smith said. "I'm at a loss for words. I thought he'd run a whole lot better."
Well behind Roadster (8 1/2 lengths) came Sigalert, who was followed by Spin Lightning and Sparky Ville to complete the order of finish.
Bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Equine out of the A.P. Indy mare Indyan Giving, Game Winner has $216,000 in earnings from his two starts. He was a $110,000 purchase by Ben Glass out of the Lane's End consignment to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2017.