Ransom the Moon © Benoit Photo
Agave Racing Stable and Wilke’s Ransom the Moon rallied on the far outside in the stretch to win the Grade I $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes for the second straight year, again defeating Roy H, 2017’s Eclipse Award-winning champion sprinter, in the six-furlong dash at Del Mar.
Providing jockey Flavien Prat with his third triumph of the afternoon and an impressive fourth straight success in the Crosby, Ransom the Moon overhauled the competition with an impressive burst of speed which propelled him to a convincing two and one-quarter victory in 1:10.08.
Roy H, acclaimed last year’s top sprinter after his win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in November at Del Mar, was sent off as the 6-5 favorite under Kent Desormeaux and garnered the second spot by a half-length over longshot Touching Rainbows. Edwards Going Left was fourth in the field of eleven top sprinters.
Ransom the Moon, a six-year-old son of Malibu Moon trained by Phil D’Amato, went postward at 9-2 and returned $11.60, $5 and $3.80 and earned $180,000 with his sixth win in 24 lifetime outings. He also earned an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs in November since the Crosby is a “Win and You’re In” qualifier.
Roy H paid $3 and $2.60, while Touching Rainbows, also conditioned by D’Amato, returned $5.80 to show.
In Saturday’s supporting feature, the $150,000 California Dreamin’ Stakes for older California-bred runners, Gary Barber’s Fly to Mars came on strongly in the stretch to win under Prat.
Fly to Mars, send to the gate at 9-2, clicked by a length over Grecian Fire, stepping the mile and one-sixteenth on the infield Jimmy Durante Turf Course in a blazing 1:39.50, bettering the course record of 1:39.52 set by Sidney’s Candy August 14, 2010.
Third, a half-length behind Grecian Fire, was B Squared, with Camino Del Paraiso checking in fourth in the field of eleven horses. Pee Wee Reese, the 2-1 betting choice, was seventh after setting the pace. Withdrawn was Soi Phet.
Fly to Mars, a four-year-old gelding by Ministers Wild Cat trained by Peter Miller, returned $11.20, $5.80 and $4.80 after his fifth win in 14 starts. Grecian Fire paid $10.40 and $7, while B Squared paid $6.20 to show. Miller had a training triple, also winning with Kershaw in the fourth and Broome in the eighth.
The afternoon began with a noteworthy debut by Chasing Yesterday, half-sister to 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah. The two-year-old daughter of Tapit scored by four and one-quarter lengths under Mike Smith, racing five and one-half furlongs in 1:04.44. Owned by Summerwind Farms and trained by Bob Baffert, Chasing Yesterday paid $3 as a 1-2 favorite.
Sunday’s Pick Six will feature a Jackpot carryover of $151,923. Post time is 2 p.m. for the first of nine races.
FLAVIEN PRAT (Ransom the Moon, winner) – “I was thinking I was riding this horse up too close. I might have been taking his kick away from him. So today I went a different way. We had a big field and I knew there would be some pace, so I sat back with him. Then he came running. I had a lot of horse.”
KENT DESORMEAUX (Roy H, second) – “He’s been off a while, so he might have needed this one. The boss (trainer Peter Miller) will go over him real well and get it figured out.”
GARY STEVENS (Touching Rainbows, third) – “I caught a flyer out of there and he was in a comfortable spot. Turning for home I thought I might even win it. Unfortunately, the oil light came on about the sixteenth pole.”
PHIL D’AMATO (Ransom the Moon, winner) – “This horse beat this field on the square. Roy H is a great horse, hats off to him. But my horse, since I gave him a freshening awhile back he has kind of become the horse of old. I was more focused on (his other horse, the third-place finisher) Touching Rainbows as the race developed, because he was in (contention) but then I saw Flavien (Prat) tip Ransom the Moon out and saw them steadily pick up speed. By the time they hit the top of the lane I thought Ransom the Moon was going to run them down.”
FRACTIONS: :21.93 :44.78 :57.39 1:10.08
The stakes win was the second of the meet and the fourth straight victory in the Bing Crosby for rider Prat. He now has 25 stakes wins at Del Mar.
(Prat is one of only three riders to win the same stakes race four years in a row at Del Mar. The other two were Bill Shoemaker – Del Mar Futurity 1971-74 – and Chris McCarron, who did it three times – Graduation Stakes 1979-82, the Clement L. Hirsch 1994-97 and the Rancho Bernardo from 1995-98.)
The stakes win is the first of the meet, but second (last year’s Bing Crosby with same horse) in the Bing Crosby for trainer D’Amato. He now has 21 stakes wins at Del Mar.
Ransom the Moon is owned by the Agave Racing Stable of Mark Martinez of San Antonio, TX and Jeffry Wilke of Omaha, NB.