California Dreamin' Handicap
DEL MAR, CALIFORNIA SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2009
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ HANDICAP
JOSE VALDIVIA, JR. (Dewey’s Special) – “This is a really good effort for him. He’s stepping up in class here and he came through. I had a lot of respect for the favorite (Bold Chieftain); he’s an old class horse who you always have to be aware of. (Bold Chieftain had won the last two runnings of the race.) But around the turn my horse picked it up and fired. The last sixteenth he was drifting a little, but he got it done. He’s a good one.”
VICTOR ESPINOZA (Nitro Active) – “It was a good try for him. It was just a little short for him today. A little short.”
DAVID FLORES (Bert’s Law) – “He gave me a great effort. I thought I was going to get second. He came from way down (in class) and ran big. No complaints.”
RON ELLIS (Dewey’s Special) -- “This horse has done more than we ever expected since coming back from a tendon injury [left foreleg]. Fortunately, the tendon problem wasn’t a bad one. We just gave him a lot of time and now he’s come back to win three straight races. I thought his race on the grass last year was his best, so we decided to keep him on the grass. I don’t know what we’ll do with him next. He’s kind of a smallish horse so we have to take care of him. We may look at a race on Cal Cup day.”
FRACTIONS: :23.94 :47.51 1:11.11 1:34.75 1:40.85
The stakes win was the first of the meet for Jose Valdivia, Jr. and his first in the California Dreamin’. It was his 10th stakes victory at Del Mar.
The stakes win was the first of the meet for Ron Ellis and his first in the California Dreamin’. It was his 15th stakes win at Del Mar.
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