Zoffarelli is promoted to bumpy victory in La Jolla Handicap

Thanks to a favorable ruling from stewards, Zoffarelli (7-1) had a winning U.S. debut Sunday at Del Mar, scoring in a controversial running of the Grade 3, $150,000 La Jolla Handicap covering 1 1/16 miles of firm turf at Del Mar.

Jockey Drayden Van Dyke and Zoffarelli tried to split horses in the stretch, but they were bumped hard from their left by first-place finisher Sword Zorro (6-1).

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"If I don’t get banged that last time, I’m going to go on by and win it on my own," Van Dyke said. "But (Sword Zorro) kept constantly drifting out and out. It was the right call. I knew this horse was going to run big today."

Ridden by Umberto Rispoli, Sword Zorro was ruled by stewards to have "drifted out several paths," according to track announcer Trevor Denman. That led to the rough contact with Zoffarelli, who was trying to thread a needle between Sword Zorro and Hudson Ridge (8-5). The favorite was ridden by Abel Cedillo to an apparent third-place finish.

After the stewards ruling, Zoffarelli was promoted from second to first and Hudson Ridge from third to second. Sword Zorro was demoted to third.

"I wasn’t that confident," winning trainer Jeff Mullins said of the wait for the stewards' decision. "I’ve been on the wrong side of them a lot before. (The promotion) looked legitimate, but you never know."

Stilleto Boy (6-1) set the early pace with quarter-mile fractions of 23.38, 47.16 and 1:11.55. Zoffarelli, a 3-year-old Zoffany gelding trained only for the past week by Mullins, stayed near the rear of the back before making his move in the stretch. The final time for the race was 1:42.27.

In an interview with TVG, Mullins said if Zoffarelli was not hurt by all the bumping, the next stop could be the Del Mar Derby (G2), 1 1/4-mile race on Sept. 4.

"I’ve only had him for eight days. No works," Mullins told the Del Mar publicity team. "They worked him before he came, and we just kept him happy."

Zoffarelli ran the first seven races of his career in England for trainer Ralph Beckett, winning once in a $5,545 synthetic-track handicap Sept. 5 at Kempton. He was bought by the father-son partnership of Jed and Tim Cohen.

"I did my homework," Van Dyke said. "I was over at the barn with Jeff the other morning watching this horse’s races in England. The owners know what they’re doing when they go over to Europe and buy one. They got another good one here."