Grecian Fire © Benoit Photo
KMN Racing’s Grecian Fire, the lukewarm 3-1 favorite under Hall of Famer Mike Smith, withstood serious traffic trouble on the far turn and a subsequent stewards’ inquiry to win the featured $150,000 California Dreamin’ Stakes Friday.
Grecian Fire, a five-year-old son of Unusual Heat, was forced to take up sharply while rallying when The Hunted bore in, causing the eventual winner to bear out and interfere with runners to his outside. After posting the inquiry sign and viewing videotape of the incident, the stewards absolved Grecian Fire of blame and certified his triumph.
Impressively, Grecian Fire recovered to rally in the stretch and outfinish 25-1 The Street Fighter, reaching the wire a length in front in a swift 1:39.85 for the mile and one-sixteenth over the infield grass circuit. Third was What a View, who set a fast pace in his first race in almost a year while finishing a half-length behind runner-up The Street Fighter. Fourth in the field of eleven turf runners was longshot Hardboot.
The Hunted, who was a close second choice in the wagering, also at 3-1, finished seventh.
Grecian Fire, trained by J. Keith Desormeaux, was scoring his sixth victory in 25 starts and first money of $85,500 increased his career earnings to $384,202. He returned $8.20, $5.00 and $4.00. The Street Fighter paid $22.80 and $12.80, while What a View returned $6.40 to show.
MIKE SMITH (Grecian Fire, winner) – “My goodness, I got hit hard on the turn there. The six horse (The Hunted) came over and hit me hard. I was lucky we didn’t go down. It was good they ran that :22 and :45 early. That allowed me to come late and get up, even after what happened. If I don’t get hit, I win by 10.”
EDWIN MALDONADO (The Street Figher, second) – “He ran good; really good. He ran his race today and got beat by a better horse.”
NORBERTO ARROYO, JR. (What a View, third) – “Thought I was going to steal it. Fast fractions, but he was doing it easy. He could have gone the half in :44. He just got a little tired at the end. He ran well.”
KEITH DESORMEAUX (Grecian Fire, winner) - “I can tell you this...everyone is looking for superlatives right? I’ve never seen anything like that. In a stake, how do you recover from something like that and close the way he did. It was a little unnerving because on the live shot it looked like a no-brainer: the six (horse) came over on him, clipped heels and overreacted. It took a while and they shouldn’t do that to us.”
FRACTIONS: :22.22 :45.42 1:08.94 1:33.64 1:39.85
The stakes win was the first of the meet and first in the California Dreamin’ for rider Smith. He now has 69 stakes wins at Del Mar, 10th best among all riders.
The stakes win was the first of the meet and the first in the California Dreamin’ for trainer Desormeaux. He now has five stakes wins at Del Mar.
The winning owner is KMN Racing, which is the nom du course for Kevin and Kimberly Nish of Fairfield, CA.