Bolo Aims to Tie Together Wins in Del Mar Mile
Image:
Description:
Photo: Benoit Photo
Bolo and Florent Geroux after their Shoemaker Mile score at Santa Anita
After securing the biggest win of his career, veteran Bolo will look to win back-to-back races for the first time since his 2-year-old campaign when he starts in the $200,000 Del Mar Mile Handicap (G2T) Aug. 18 at Del Mar.
The versatile Bolo has been competing against top competition for a long time—he was unplaced in American Pharoah 's Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) victory in 2015—and has registered some big wins, taking the 2016 and 2017 editions of the Arcadia Stakes (G2T) on the turf at Santa Anita Park. He enters Sunday's test off his first top-level win—a clear victory in the May 27 Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T) on the Santa Anita course.
The Shoemaker marked the second start off an extended layoff for the 7-year-old son of Temple City who finished fifth in an April 28 allowance optional claiming race at Santa Anita, his first race since June 2017 when he finished sixth in the Shoemaker Mile. He was given time off to address a small tendon lesion.
"The first race in April was a bit far for him and he hadn't run in basically two years, so it was sort of like, 'Let's get him out there and have him carve out some easy fractions and see if he can keep going,'" said trainer Carla Gaines after the upset Shoemaker win. "He got a little tired in the end (in April), but today he didn't."
Riding Bolo for the first time, Florent Geroux was aboard for the frontrunning score in the Shoemaker—a Breeders' Cup Challenge race. After the win, Geroux said he hopes to retain the mount for the TVG Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) this fall on the same course, and he will again ride Bolo Sunday.
Consistency has proven elusive for Bolo, who has not won consecutive races since he followed his maiden win on the Del Mar turf in 2014 with a 4 1/2-length romp in the Eddie Logan Stakes on the Santa Anita grass.
Among the expected 10 rivals awaiting Golden Pegasus Racing's Bolo in the handicap for 3-year-olds and older are a pair of runners who already have earned stakes wins on the course during the current meet: Agave Racing Stable, ERJ Racing, Madaket Stables, and Rockin Robin Racing Stable's Bowies Hero and Claiborne Farm, Perry and Ramona Bass, and Adele Dilschneider's Bombard.
After finishing third to Bolo in the Shoemaker, Bowies Hero rallied from fifth and drew off in the stretch to post a 2 1/4-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile Eddie Read Stakes (G2T) July 21 at Del Mar. Flavien Prat guided the grade 1 winner for the first time in the Eddie Read, and he'll be back aboard Sunday. Bowies Hero is the 124-pound co-highweight with Bolo.
Bombard has yet to place in a graded stakes, but he enters Sunday's test in good form after a front-end score in the restricted Wickerr Stakes, also on the July 21 card. The Wickerr was restricted to horses who hadn't won an open stakes of $50,000 or more since Sept. 1, 2018.
Del Mar, Sunday, August 18, 2019, Race 7Entries: Del Mar Mile H. (G2T)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Prince Earl (CA)
Geovanni Franco
116
Philip D'Amato
12/1
2
2El Picaro (CHI)
Drayden Van Dyke
118
Ignacio Correas, IV
15/1
3
3Majestic Eagle (KY)
Rafael Bejarano
120
Neil D. Drysdale
12/1
4
4Bombard (KY)
Mike E. Smith
119
Richard E. Mandella
6/1
5
5Bowies Hero (KY)
Flavien Prat
124
Philip D'Amato
5/2
6
6Double Touch (GB)
Abel Cedillo
117
Dan Blacker
30/1
7
7Grecian Fire (CA)
Kent J. Desormeaux
118
J. Keith Desormeaux
6/1
8
8What a View (CA)
Martin Garcia
118
Philip D'Amato
6/1
9
9Bolo (KY)
Florent Geroux
124
Carla Gaines
5/1
10
10Sharp Samurai (KY)
Joseph Talamo
120
Mark Glatt
6/1
11
11Ohio (BRZ)
John R. Velazquez
122
Michael W. McCarthy
15/1
