Los Al: Shea Brennan wins late duel to take King Glorious
Making his first start around two turns, 7-2 second choice Shea Brennan outfinished 5-1 shot I’m a Bad Boy by a nose to win the $102,000 King Glorious Stakes on Sunday, the final day of the December meet at Los Alamitos.
Owned by breeder Nick Alexander and trained by Phil D’Amato, the 2-year-old Tough Sunday colt out of Old Topper mare Carrie Rose won for the second time in five starts and completed a three-win day for jockey Antonio Fresu.
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The $60,000 payday increased Shea Brennan’s earnings to $144,600. No worse than third in his career, the chestnut completed one mile in 1:38.46 and paid $9.20, $4.80 and $3.
“He’s a horse with a lot of ability, but he’s just still learning,” D’Amato said. “(Fresu) said he was still looking around through the stretch. He’s got a lot of heart, grit and determination. I think the two turns helped him today.
“I thought (the finish) was extremely close, but after watching the slo-mo replay, I thought we had a good chance at it, and sure enough, they put our number up.”
Fresu, who was aboard the winner for the first time Sunday, echoed that Shea Brennan still has some learning to do.
“He was playing around a little bit in the stretch, but he was very game when they came to him,” Fresu said. “He broke well and was pulling a bit into that first turn, but he relaxed on the backside.”
I’m a Bad Boy, who entered as the only double winner in the race restricted to California-bred or sired juveniles, finished a half-length in front of 3-2 favorite R Heisman and returned $6 and $3.80. The show price for R Heisman, who was trying to provide trainer Peter Miller a third consecutive win in the King Glorious, was $2.40.
The finish was completed by Whiskyginandbrandy, Got’m Cot’m, Hardtobebetternow, Call Me Sir, Valentines Candy and The Gypsy Cowboy.
Tiago Pereira, the rider aboard Whiskyginandbrandy, lodged an objection against the winner, but it was dismissed by the stewards.