Footbridge Clearly Best at Santa Anita

Patiently handled by Mike Smith, Godolphin Racing’s Footbridge took command three sixteenths of a mile from home and won Friday’s $60,000 allowance feature at Santa Anita by an authoritative 1 ½ lengths, while covering 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.36.

Breaking from post position four in a field of five 3-year-olds and up, Footbridge, trained by Eoin Harty, sat a comfortable second behind pacesetter Tiz Dynamic through fractions of 23.31, 46.98, 1:11.34 and 1:36.73.

“They’ve always thought a lot of this horse,” said Smith.  “When he was younger, he had some minor little setbacks that caused him to tail-off some…This was a nice bunch of horses he just beat and if he can improve a little off of this, he’ll be right back to where they thought they’d be with him.”

The second choice at 3-1, Footbridge paid $8.40, $5.00 and $4.40.  Bred in Kentucky by Goldolphin’s Darley Stud, the 4-year-old colt by Street Cry improved his record to 10-3-2-2.  With the winner’s share of $36,000, he increased his earnings to $146,786.

Airfoil, with Joe Talamo up, sat third throughout and overhauled Tiz Dynamic by a half length late for the place.  Off at 5-1, he paid $5.40 and $4.20.

Ridden by Edwin Maldonado, Tiz Dynamic cleared the field easily from his outside post but tired late to finish third, 4 ½ lengths in front of heavily favored Hear the Ghost.  Off at 7-2, Tiz Dynamic paid $4.40 to show.

Hear the Ghost, a winner of the Grade II San Felipe Stakes in his third career start on March 9, 2013, lost for the eighth consecutive time.  Off at odds of 4-5, he never threatened and finished 6 ½ lengths behind the winner.