Desert Gate © Benoit Photo
Pegram, Watson and Weitman’s Desert Gate, the 1/5 favorite in a field of five 2-year-olds, broke well, volleyed for the lead until the stretch and then simply pulled far away at the finish of the $150,000 Best Pal Stakes Saturday at Del Mar.
The colt by Omaha Beach, a $260,000 purchase at a 2-year-old in-training sale in Florida this past March, ran the six furlongs in 1:10.37 and merely cruised home by eight and three-quarter lengths in the Grade III feature. He was handled by the meet’s leading rider, Juan Hernandez, and gave trainer Bob Baffert his 12th victory in the 55th edition of the juvenile offering.
Desert Gate returned $2.40 for $2 to his backers in the weekend gathering. He paid the minimum $2.10 to place and there was no show betting allowed in the short field.
Finishing second in the dash was Reddam Racing’s homebred Pavlovian, who has a length on third-place finisher Brigante, owned and bred by Calumet Farm.
Desert Gate had scored by two and a quarter lengths in his racing debut in June at Santa Anita against straight maidens. The chestnut earned a first prize of $90,000 for his Del Mar efforts and now shows earnings of $126,000.
JUAN HERNANDEZ (Desert Gate, winner) – “This horse is usually pretty quiet. But today he was on it. He was feeling good in the paddock. He came away from there good and he was running comfortably all the way. At the three-eighths (pole) he wanted to go, but I got him to wait. Then we took off in the stretch and he was the best.”
BOB BAFFERT (Desert Gate, winner) – “It’s nice to see these horses develop like this. He’s been kind of quiet down here but he broke well and that’s the most important part of these 2-year-old races is that they come out clean. This horse is very professional since day one. It’s nice to have these horses. That’s what we’re in the business for. We just got to keep him healthy and sound.”
FRACTIONS: :22.26 :45.31 :57.78 1:10.37
The stakes win was the fourth of the meet for rider Hernandez and his third in the Best Pal. He and trainer Baffert won last year’s running with Getaway Car. Hernandez now has 56 sakes wins at Del Mar.
The stales win was the third of the meet for trainer Baffert and his 12th in the Best Pal.
He now has 181 stakes wins at Del Mar, the most of any trainer.
The winning owners are Mike Pegram (Del Mar), Karl Watson and Paul Weitman (Tucson, AZ).