Yuvetsi © Benoit Photo
Hronis Racing’s Yuvetsi, a 9-1 outsider under jockey Tyler Baze, shook off 2-5 favored Anonymity turning into the stretch and continued on to score a convincing triumph in the featured Grade III $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for older fillies and mares Sunday.
Coming into the contest off a fourth-place finish behind Unique Bella in the mile and one-sixteenth Clement L. Hirsch Stakes July 29, Yuvetsi broke well from her inside post position, showed sharp speed to move to the front down the backstretch, with Anonymity, piloted by Flavien Prat, stalking in second place.
Bending into the stretch, Yuvetsi responded to Baze’s urging to open a clear margin and wasn’t threatened through the lane in winning by two and one-half lengths in 1:17.22 for the six and one-half furlongs.
Anonymity, the odds-on choice on the basis of three impressive victories in four starts, including an eight and one-quarter length romp July 29, was four lengths in front of the 2017 Rancho Bernardo winner, Skye Diamonds, with Deer Valley trailing another ten lengths in arrears in fourth and last. Withdrawn from the race were Turkish Tabby and Moonshine Memories.
Yuvetsi, a four-year-old Kentucky-bred filly by Bodemeister trained by John Sadler, earned $60,000 with her fourth win in 13 stars to elevate her bankroll to $239,930. She returned $20.40 and $4.40, while Anonymity paid $2.10 to place. There was no show wagering because of the small field.
TYLER BAZE (Yuvetsi, winner) – “John (trainer John Sadler) said ‘Just ride it as it comes up.’ And she came out of there so fast I was right up front. Nobody seemed to really want to go to the front, so I just kept on going. I knew she wasn’t going to get tired; she’d had that mile race (1-1/16 mile Clement L. Hirsch, July 29) last out, so I knew she was plenty fit. Then she just went on with it and ground them all down.”
FLAVIEN PRAT (Anonymity, second) – “She was just flat today.”
TIAGO PEREIRA (Skye Diamonds, third) – “She didn’t have her usual energy today.”
JOHN SADLER (Yuvetsi, winner) – “She’s coming off a longer race and I knew she would battle all the way. She’s a trier. I didn’t realize how many times I’d won this race (now five) and it kind of perked me up when I heard (simulcast host) John Lies talking about it in the paddock. It’s always been a good race for us and now this filly has won a small stakes at Santa Anita and a Graded stakes here, so we’re happy. .”
FRACTIONS: :22.08 :44.93 1:10.24 1:17.22
The stakes win was the fourth of the meet but second (Carlsbad, 2009) in the Rancho Bernardo for rider Baze. He now has 34 stakes wins at Del Mar.
The stakes win was the third of the meet but fifth in the Rancho Bernardo for trainer Sadler. He now has 62 stakes wins at Del Mar, putting him in a tie with Richard Mandella for fifth-most stakes wins at the shore oval.
Yuvetsi is owned by Hronis Racing of brothers Kosta and Pete Hronis of Delano, CA.