Greyvitos breaks his maiden in Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar

At 19-1, Greyvitos led all the way in Saturday’s $100,000 Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar. For 2 year olds going seven furlongs, Greyvitos upset the Bob Baffert-trained Mourinho to break his maiden in stakes company.

Jockey Victor Espinoza was aboard Greyvitos and took advantage of post one. The Virginia bred got the jump-start over 6-5 favorite Mourinho and Grade 2 winner Run Away. Beautiful Shot in post five hit number four, Here Is Happy, at the break, knocking the latter out of the competition. Italiano was able to settle in fifth.

Greyvitos ticked off easy fractions in :22.66, :45.20, and 1:09.56. Turning for home, Run Away came up empty as Mourinho moved on the outside. The favorite looked poised to take over the race but could never catch the leader. As Greyvitos remained steadfast, Mourinho drifted in and out and failed to make up the necessary ground.

Greyvitos completed the seven furlongs in 1:22.20, besting Mourinho by 1 ½ lengths. The win returned $41.80. Beautiful Shot, Italiano, Run Away and Here Is Happy completed the order of finish.

“I knew there was a lot of speed in the race,” said Espinoza, “but if I could get the jump on them then I would just go on. The post number one I had to do something. The fractions were pretty quick but when the horse is doing it easy it doesn’t matter how fast you go.”

Trainer Adam Kitchingman said he felt confident when he saw Greyvitos on the lead.

“I wasn’t surprised to see him on the lead. In his last race, he was climbing with the dirt hitting him and so I was okay with him on the lead today,” Kitchingman said. “Those were solid fractions and the final time was good. With his pedigree, we figured him for a grass horse and definitely for two turns because he’s bred top and bottom for that. And we might run him again on the grass sometime in the future. But he trained so well on the dirt that we wanted to try him on it. I also figured he’d like the seven furlongs.”

Owned by Triple B Farms, the Bob Hope was the first win in three starts for Greyvitos. The Malibu Moon colt was purchased for $100,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. He now has $66,345 in earnings.

The next target for Greyvitos is the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 9, which awards the winner 10 points on the 2018 Kentucky Derby trail.

By Christine Oser