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Wearing blinkers for the first time, favored Golf Drama easily prevailed in his third career start in a $51,500 maiden race for 2-year-olds bred or sired in California Friday at Los Alamitos.
Defeated as the public choice in his first two races at Santa Anita and Del Mar, the Smiling Tiger colt broke sharply under jockey Tyler Baze, shook off a brief challenge from longshot Please Focus and went on to win by four lengths.
Owned by Edward J. Brown and Mark Stanton and trained by Jeff Bonde, Golf Drama, who is out of the Gotham City mare She’s So Vain, completed the six furlongs in 1:10.86. Second and third in his earlier outings, the chestnut, who was purchased for $87,000 in 2021, has banked $53,000. He returned $4.60, $3 and $2.40.
Cathedral Light, who also added blinkers Friday for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, completed the exacta at 5-1, finishing a half-length in front of Thirsty Pappy, who was also 5-1. Cathedral Light paid $5 and $3 while the show price on Thirsty Pappy was $3.60.
My Ransom, The Last One Perk, Stay in the Game, the 9-2 second choice, Tom and Jazzy and Please Focus completed the order of finish.
With two days left in the September meet, Ramon Vazquez, who swept the early double Friday with Shardial in the first and Irish Wahine in the second, has a 7-6 advantage over Edwin Maldonado in the jockey’s race.
Peter Miller took over the lead in the trainer standings with a pair of wins Friday – Shardial and Disc Jockey in the fourth. He has four victories, one more than Hall of Famer Bob Baffert and Hector Palma.
