Del Mar: Easter wins Seabiscuit; D’Amato runners finish 1-2-3

Trainer Phil D’Amato hit the trifecta in Saturday's Grade 2, $201,500 Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar. His runners finished first, second and third in the 1 1/16-mile grass headliner, with Easter leading the parade and proving best by half a length.

The 5-year-old France-bred by the Australian stallion Exosphere had to wait and wait in the lane for room to run, but once he got clear and jockey Antonio Fresu hit the gas, Easter surged to the front in the last 100 yards and earned the first-place prize of $120,000.

Finishing second was the race favorite Hong Kong Harry, who had a half length on Balnikhov.

Fresu said he had a challenging trip aboard the winner.

"I got Hong Kong Harry in the race right next to me and so I sat behind him," Fresu said. "It wasn’t easy in their first part. My horse was pretty keen in the first part of the race, and so I was trying to relax him as much as I could along the way. I just tried to get him in a nice rhythm. When we came for home, I could see Hong Kong Harry was loaded in front of me so I followed through ... and the last 200 yards there was an opening and I took it. My horse just exploded. He seems like a very nice horse, and hopefully he has a very bright future."

For his part, D'Amato said he thought Easter was running for second until deep stretch.

“I saw Easter was kind of stuck behind there and thought maybe he was going to get second," he said. "Antonio (Fresu) said he was able to find daylight and then he exploded. He said within a couple of strides he made up all the ground like nothing. It’s nice to see all three of my horses run well and the best horse won today. Maybe it’s ‘Harry’ next time and maybe it’s Balnikhov after that.”

Hong Kong Harry, who went off a 11/10, had won last year’s running of the Seabiscuit.

The Madaket Stable-owned Easter was winning his first graded stakes and increased his bankroll to $447,910 for registering his sixth score in his 18th start.

He ran the distance in a rapid 1:39.96, just 46 100ths of a second off the track record.

As the second choice in the field of eight, he returned $5.40 to his backers. He had come into the D’Amato barn less than a month ago after running a series of races mostly in the east out of the barn of conditioner Graham Motion.