(Grade III) 

 

SANTIAGO GONZALEZ (Hard Aces, winner) – “The pace was slow and that was good for me and my horse. He finishes strong. For about the last seven furlongs (of the race) he was very strong. The trainer told me just to ride him. You do what you know how to do. It worked out well.” 

 

TYLER BAZE (Quick Casablanca, second) – “Funny race; no pace. But my horse tries hard every time. I just tried to stay out of his way. Today he was second best.”

 

RAFAEL BEJARANO (Seve’s Road) – “No excuses. They went slow, but in the end those two horses ahead of us were good horses.”

JOHN SADLER  (Hard Aces, winner)  –“This makes him almost a millionaire ($999,645 career earnings) so we’re real proud of him. We discussed every scenario and I just left it up to him (jockey Santiago Gonzalez) how to ride the race. We didn’t think there would be any speed in there and he’d get a nice easy lead. He (Hard Aces) was probably surprised because he’s never been up there like that. He’s a grinder and a hard horse to ride because he pulls himself up and never wins by much, but he got a very good ride today. We’ll look at maybe something long on the grass near the end of the meet and we’ll obviously look at the Pacific Classic, although that would have to come up right for us to go in it. We’ll wait and decide.”

 

 

FRACTIONS:  :25.62  :51.15  1:16.76  1:41.99  2:05.98  2:30.55

 

The stakes win was the first of the meet for Santiago Gonzalez and his first in the Cougar II. He now has six stakes wins at Del Mar.

 

The stakes win was the first of the meet for John Sadler, but his second in the Cougar II (Zappa in 2008).  He now has 53 stakes wins at the shore, sixth best of all time.