Campaign © Benoit Photo
Woodford Racing’s distance-loving Campaign, the 3-5 favorite ridden by Rafael Bejarano, closed resolutely in the stretch to overhaul Itsinthepost in the final sixteenth and win the featured $100,000 Cougar II Handicap Wednesday.
Far back as usual in the early stages of the mile and one-half contest over the main track, Campaign kept to his task under Bejarano’s urging to score by a length and one-quarter in 2:32.36.
Itsinthepost, making his dirt track debut after a successful career campaigning on grass, ran a game race under Drayden Van Dyke, taking the lead entering the stretch before being overtaken by the winner. Third, twelve lengths farther back, was For the Top, who set the pace, with Morse Code fourth in the field of five older horses.
Premium Forest and Zestful were scratched.
Campaign, a four-year-old son of Curlin, scored his fifth victory in ten starts and paid $3.40, $2.40 and $2.10 while earning a prize of $60,000. Runner-up Itsinthepost returned $3 and $2.60, while For the Top paid $2.40 to show. John Sadler conditions Campaign, victorious in the Tokyo City Handicap at Santa Anita at the Cougar distance in mid-April.
Sadler said after the race that Campaign is a possibility to run in the Grade I $1 million TVG Pacific Classic at a mile and one-quarter August 17.
RAFAEL BEJARANO ( Campaign, winner) – “I had to get busy with him today at the six (furlong marker). The fractions were so slow and I knew I had to move up. And I knew that No. 2 (Itsinthepost) is a good horse and I didn’t want him to get too far away. But this horse always does it. He did it again today.”
DRAYDEN VAN DYKE (Itsinthepost, second) – “He ran well; he ran a winning race. He gave it a great try.”
JOE TALAMO (For the Top, third) – “The fractions were good; we were getting what we wanted. But we just couldn’t match strides with the winner. But I’m proud of my horse. He ran well.”
JOHN SADLER (Campaign, winner) – “This horse is such a stayer there’s a very strong chance he’ll go in the Pacific Classic. Rafael (Bejarano) said he was kind of lethargic on kind of a hot and sticky day. But even though he runs from way back he can close even into a slow pace. We thought he would get up in the last part and he did.”
FRACTIONS: :24.56 :49.03 1:14.72 1:40.31 2:05.73 2:32.36
The stakes win was the first of the meet for rider Bejarano, but his fourth in the Cougar II. He now has 60 stakes wins at Del Mar, 12th most among all jockeys.
The stakes win was the third of the meet for trainer Sadler and his third in the Cougar II. He now has 70 stakes wins at Del Mar, tying him for fourth on the track’s conditioner list with the late Hall of Fame trainer Robert Frankel.
The winner is owned by Woodford Racing, which is the nom du course of W.S. Farish, Jr. of Versailles, KY.