Swipe up late to win the Summer Juvenile Championship
For the second time in 15 days, the Desormeaux brothers – trainer Keith and Hall of Fame jockey Kent – teamed to win a 2-year-old stakes with a maiden.
Matching the success of the filly Right There in the Landaluce Stakes June 27 at Santa Anita, Swipe, a son of Birdstone, was up in the final strides Sunday to edge Mrazek in the $85,100 Summer Juvenile Championship, the closing day feature of the Summer Thoroughbred Festival at Los Alamitos.
Content to save ground while Mrazek set the pace with Dubdubwatson, Swiss Minister and Ralis in close pursuit, Swipe eased off the fence in midstretch and ran down Mrazek, who had a two-length advantage with an eighth of a mile to run.
Owned by Big Chief Racing LLC, Swipe, who was the 5-2 third choice, completed the 5 ½ furlongs in 1:02.89.
Runner-up in his debut behind Dubdubwatson, who finished third Sunday, May 22 at Santa Anita, Swipe, who is out of the Grand Slam mare Avalanche Lily, was third in the Tremont Stakes June 5 at Belmont Park before returning to Southern California.
His regular rider thought the trip to the opposite coast was the reason the dark bay, who was purchased for $5,000 at the Keeneland September sale last year, won Sunday.
“That race was what won it for us today,’’ said Kent Desormeaux. “I couldn’t have drawn it up any better with four across the track and us sitting in behind. I actually thought we were 1-9 at the quarter pole, then it went to 10-1 when the leader (Mrazek) left us.’’
This also wasn’t the first time the Desormeauxs and Big Chief Racing had won a stakes with a 2-year-old maiden at Los Alamitos. On July 13, 2014 – the final day of the inaugural Summer Thoroughbred Festival – La Grange rallied to defeat heavily-favored Heart of Paradise in the $100,000 TVG Cinderella Stakes for fillies.
Swipe’s win pushed his earnings to $88,330. He paid $7.80, $4.40 and $2.80. Mrazek, who finished 7 ¼ lengths clear of the rest of the field, returned $3.80 and $3.00 as the 5-2 second choice. The show price on Dubdubwatson was $3.20.
Completing the order of finish were Swiss Minister, Ralis, the 8-5 favorite, and Taste’s Secret.
Four jockeys – Santiago Gonzalez, Mario Gutierrez, Edwin Maldonado and Fernando Perez – wound up with six wins apiece to share the riding title. Maldonado is seven away from 1,000 in his career.
Doug O’Neill won his second local training title, finishing the eight-day meet with five victories, one more than Bob Baffert and Peter Miller. O’Neill shared the 2014 Fall meet crown with Mike Puype.
Thoroughbred racing will return to Los Alamitos in September. The Fall meet will begin Thursday, Sept. 10 and continue through Friday, Sept. 25.
Source: Los Alamitos