Achiever’s Legacy, dismissed at 9-1 as the longest shot in a four-horse field of two-year-old fillies, rallied in the stretch to win the $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes Sunday under apprentice jockey Drayden Van Dyke.
Always prominent in the seven-furlong sprint, Achiever’s Legacy overhauled the duelling Maybellene and odds-on favored Light the City in the upper stretch and went on to win by 1 ¼ lengths in 1:23.25 for the distance.
Maybellene, off at 9-2 with Rafael Bejarano, edged 1-5 favored Light the City and jockey Elvis Trujillo by a neck for runner-up honors, with Into Oblivion a distant fourth another 6 ¾ lengths farther back. Xoxo was a scratch from the original field.
Achiever’s Legacy, a daughter of City Zip owned by a partnership of Gillian Campbell, Margaret Cellucci and Dan Horowitz and trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, returned $21.60 and $9.80 while earning $60,000 with her second win in five starts. Maybellene paid $6.40 to place. With only four betting interests, there was no show wagering.
The winner began her career with a maiden success on the grass at Gulfstream Park in Florida. In her West Coast debut last summer, she was pulled up after the saddle slipped in the Oak Tree Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar. She then was sixth in the Surfer Girl at Santa Anita. Most recently, the filly was beaten just a half-length while finishing third to Maybellene in a Santa Anita allowance race in late October.
Peter Miller took over the undisputed top spot in the trainer standings by sending out three winners on the Sunday program. Entering the day tied with Mike Puype, Miller saddled Serbian Syclone to win the third at $10.60, Tosheen at $5.20 in the fourth and Echo Zulu at $10.20 in the sixth.
With a three-day carryover of $599,483 and $2,552,817 in “new” money, Sunday’s Pick Six pool was $3,152,300. On an afternoon dominated by favorites, there were 643 perfect tickets and each was worth $3,051.40.
Attendance Sunday totaled 5,587.
Racing resumes Thursday with the first race scheduled for 12:30 p.m. .
DRAYDEN VAN DYKE (Achiever's Legacy, winner) -- "Jerry (trainer Jerry Hollendorfer) said You know she's got speed, so don't be afraid to use it.' She broke well, but those two inside (Light the City and Maybellene) really scooted out of there and wanted to go. So I just took a little hold and got my filly to relax. Then when it came time, she was there for me. Nice race for her, and my second stakes win at Del Mar."
RAFAEL BEJARANO (Maybellene, second) -- "She tried. I wish the filly on the inside (Light the City) would have cleared to give me a better target, but my filly ran well. No excuses."
ELVIS TRUJILLO (Light the City, third) -- "She tried."
MIKE SMITH (Into Oblivion, fourth) -- "She tried, but it just wasn't her day."
JERRY HOLLENDORFER (Achiever's Legacy, winner) -- [On the win by Achiever's Legacy but loss by his favored Light the City] "I just try to win every race I'm in; I don't have any thoughts about anything else today. The race set up funny. It always does in these four-horse fields. I'd rather run in a 12-horse field, then everything sets up the way it is supposed to. I didn't mind being on the lead with (Light the City) but that probably isn't exactly what she wants to do. We had a lot of trouble with (Achiever's Legacy) when we ran her down on the turf, but she's been improving and I thought she would run well or I wouldn't have put her in here."
FRACTIONS: :22.06 :45.35 1:10.57 1:23.25
This is the first running of the Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar. Previously, it had been run 26 times at Hollywood Park under the name Moccasin Stakes.
The stakes win was apprentice Drayden Van Dyke's first of the meet and his second overall at Del Mar. Previously, he won the CTT & TOC Handicap on the grass on August 22 at Del Mar's summer meet.
The stakes win was the first of the meet for Jerry Hollendorfer and his 24th overall at Del Mar.
The ownership group for Achiever's Legacy consists of Gillian Campbell, Margaret Cellucci, Dan Horowitz, Richard Robertson, Marty Joseph and Hollendorfer.