VASILIKA – QUEEN OF THE TURF AT SANTA ANITA

When the Grade 1 Gamely used to be run at Hollywood Park some really famous fillies have won the race, and now we have a new one to add to the list. Her name is VASILIKA, and the Jerry Hollendorfer trained mare is the new Queen of The Turf in California. She is unbeaten in four starts in 2019, and this was her eleventh win in twelve starts at Santa Anita, and overall her record is an impressive seventeen wins from thirty two lifetime starts. She is a five-year-old daughter of Skipshot out of the Marquetry mare La Belle Marquet, and she was claimed for $40,000 out of her first start in 2018. She was twelve times since, with her only blip being in the Matriarch at Del Mar in December 2016 when she finished fourth.

In the $500,000 Gamely she was sent off as the generous 11-10 favorite over eight rivals, but one of those was the classy Chad Brown shipper Rymska, a Grade Two and Three winner still seeking that elusive Grade One. Eventually she would finish second to Vasilika who came from quite a long way back under jockey Flavien Prat to run down the front runners and win going away.

On a big Memorial Day weekend, the Shoemaker Mile on the turf was taken by the front running BOLO at 30-1. Going wire to wire, the seven-year-old son of Temple City was sixth in this race in 2017 and he now gets an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita in November where he will probably go off at longer odds. The connections will not care a hoot about that because the gelding was out of action for 22 months until his comeback race a month ago. Florent Geroux was the winning jockey and the trainer is Carla Gaines.

The third big race at Santa Anita was the $500,000 Gold Cup (formerly called The Hollywood Gold Cup) at 1¼ miles on the dirt which was taken by the second choice in the betting VINO ROSSO who easily held off the odds on favorite Gift Box. Jorge Velazquez has always ridden the son of Curlin, so he flew out for the ride from New York to a track where he did experience a nasty accident in the past. Vino Rosso was ninth in the 2018 Kentucky Derby, and since then he had only picked up one victory in an allowance race at Aqueduct. This win propels the Todd Fletcher charge right to the forefront in the older horse division and an early choice as a potential winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic in five months time.