City of Light, a sparsely-raced $710,000 colt, followed up his mild upset of the GI Malibu S. with another top-level tally in the GI Triple Bend S. Saturday at Santa Anita, one of four victories in the day's first four events for jockey Drayden Van Dyke. Debuting as a heavy favorite last July at Los Alamitos, the bay ran second before powering through with a 7 1/2-length graduation Sept. 1 at Del Mar. Second in a pair of first-level allowance tries after that, he made all to capture the Malibu in his sophomore finale.
Back as the even-money chalk in this spot after skipping his original target of the GIII Razorback H., City of Light came away well but allowed Bobby Abu Dhabi to coast along up front through a :22.33 quarter. Creeping closer in hand on the turn, he drew alongside that foe after a sharper :44.55 half and those two remained inseparable until outside the sixteenth pole, where City of Light began to assert his superiority, edging clear for the score.
“It's not always easy keeping a horse at the top of his game for an extended period of time and going to plan B, but the horse was good enough today to overcome that,” said winning trainer Mike McCarthy. “I thought the race set up just like it would opening day in the Malibu. The horse outside of us showed plenty of pace and my horse was a bit keener the first three-sixteenths of a mile than I expected. Drayden dropped his hands coming to the half-mile pole, the horse seemed to settle for him and he picked him up coming to the lane. It was a hard-fought battle; we were glad to be on the right end of it.”
Pedigree Notes:
City of Light is out of the unraced Paris Notion, a $52,000 purchase as a Fasig-Tipton July yearling in 1999 by breeder Ann Marie Farm. She is a half-sister to Fabulously Fast (Deputy Minister) who captured the GI Matron S. as a juvenile and the GI Test S. the following summer for the recently-deceased Caesar Kimmel. Second dam Fabulous Notion was a GISW and a half-sister to GISW Cacoethes (Alydar). Third dam Careless Notion foaled the producer of MGISW Subordination (Mt. Livermore) and the second dam of champion Fiji (GB) (Rainbow Quest).
Saturday, Santa Anita
TRIPLE BEND S.-GI, $400,000, SA, 3-10, 4yo/up, 7f, 1:21.35, ft.
1–CITY OF LIGHT, 124, c, 4, by Quality Road&log=">Quality Road
1st Dam: Paris Notion, by Dehere
2nd Dam: Fabulous Notion, by Somethingfabulous
3rd Dam: Careless Notion, by Jester
($710,000 Ylg '15 KEESEP). O-Mr. & Mrs. William K. Warren,
Jr.; B-Ann Marie Farm (KY); T-Michael W. McCarthy; J-Drayden
Van Dyke. $240,000. Lifetime Record: 6-3-3-0, $490,600. *1/2
to Pointsman (Mt. Livermore), SP, $212,417. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: A+++.
*Triple Plus*.[bullet ad=”walnut-green-purchased-by”][bullet ad=”lanes-end-sales-grad”][bullet ad=”lambholm-south-training-grad”][bullet ad=”kbif-g1″]2–Bobby Abu Dhabi, 120, c, 4, Macho Uno–Wadena, by Saint
Ballado. ($85,000 Ylg '15 KEESEP; $335,000 2yo '16 OBSAPR).
O-Rockingham Ranch; B-T/C Stable, LLC (KY); T-Peter Miller.
$80,000.
3–Edwards Going Left, 120, g, 4, Midnight Lute–Dypsy, by
Broken Vow. O-Hronis Racing LLC; B-Red Baron's Barn & Vaya
Con Suerte (CA); T-John W. Sadler. $48,000.
Margins: 1HF, 4HF, 5HF. Odds: 1.00, 8.20, 2.60.
Also Ran: Captain Scotty, Horse Greedy. Scratched: Giant Expectations. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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