Dominant Acclamation wins Whittingham at Hollywood
June 11, 2011INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) - Heavy favorite Acclamation dominated from the gate and breezed to a wire-to-wire win Saturday in the $250,000 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Ridden by Joe Talamo, Acclamation went straight to the front of the field of six horses in the Grade 1 turf race and never yielded, leading by a length at the mile pole, stretching the lead to three lengths on the second turn and eventually beating Celtic New Year by 3 1/2 lengths to win the race for the second straight year.
``Man, we had a great trip,'' said Talamo, who won two other races Saturday including the $70,000 Cinderella Stakes with favorite Killer Graces. ``He's always a little slow out of the gate, so I had to send him a little bit, but once he got to the lead he just cruised around there.''
Acclamation covered 1 1/4 lengths in 2:00.18 and paid $3.40, $2.40 and $2.10. Celtic New Year paid $5 and $2.80.
Bourbon Bay, expected to give Acclamation his toughest competition, never came close to the winner and finished a distant third, paying $2.20 to show.
Acclamation, a 5-year-old California-bred trained by Don Warren, has won six times in 25 lifetime starts and earned a total of $758,048, and is 5-for-8 on the turf at Hollywood Park.
Warren suggested his horse may switch to the main track to run in the $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9.
Later in the $100,000 Affirmed Handicap, another strong favorite, Coil, took an early lead to give an easy victory to trainer Bob Baffert.
Ridden by Baffert's go-to jockey Martin Garcia, Coil took the lead at the halfway point and finished one length in front of Runflatout, covering 1 1-16 miles on the main track in 1:42.88.
And in the Saturday's final stakes, the Grade 2, $150,000 Honeymoon Handicap for 3-year-old fillies, Sarah's Secret led all the way and beat favorite Star Billing by a half-length, running 1 1-8 miles on turf in 1:50.04 under jockey Rafael Bejarano.
Sarah's Secret has won all four of her career starts for trainer Kathy Walsh and earned $177,000.