High Velocity (Quality Road) remained unbeaten with a game, front-running performance in Saturday's GIII Bob Hope S. at Del Mar.
The Gary and Mary West colorbearer, a sharp debut winner going 5 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita Oct. 13, showed the way through an opening quarter in :23.28 and was met by slightly favored 4-5 shot Strongconstitution (Constitution) approaching the quarter pole.
Those two raced shoulder to shoulder into the stretch, but High Velocity had plenty left racing along the fence and turned back that rival to win going away by 1 1/4 lengths.
“He handled everything well for his second out,” said Hall of Famer Bob Baffert after recording his 10th win in the Bob Hope (formerly run as the Hollywood Prevue).
“It's always a tough test after you break a maiden and he didn't have a lot of time between races. But the way he worked we thought he would run well. I liked the way that when that other horse came to him he dug in and took off again. And that's a nice horse that ran second.”
Winning rider Drayden Van Dyke added, “I was loaded all the way. He's a fast horse. I got away with some pretty easy fractions here, so I was feeling good about that. I told Bob that he was just hitting his best stride as we went past the wire. He's a nice one.”
Pedigree Notes:
High Velocity marks his sire's 40th stakes winner and he is bred on a wildly proven cross, as three of Quality Road's 11 Grade I winners, including champion Caledonia Road, are also out of Dixie Union mares. Dixie Union, who died at 13 in 2010, made a lot of noise in this year's 3-year-old picture as broodmare sire of both GI Travers S. winner Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}) and stallion New Year's Day (sire of Maximum Security). High Velocity brought $350,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale, while his yearling half-sister by Nyquist brought $325,000 at last month's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling sale. Dam Ketel Twist, third in the 2015 GIII Sixty Sails H., is out of a half-sister MSW & GSP Buff (Pleasant Tap), a stalwart performer on the Kentucky circuit two decades ago who was also a half-sibling to MGSW Masseuse (Dynaformer).
Saturday, Del Mar
BOB HOPE S.-GIII, $98,000, Del Mar, 11-16, 2yo, 7f, 1:23.16, ft.
1–HIGH VELOCITY, 118, c, 2, by Quality Road
1st Dam: Ketel Twist (MSP, $192,477), by Dixie Union
2nd Dam: Frozen Treat, by Dynaformer
3rd Dam: Pedicure, by Mr. Prospector
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($350,000
Ylg '18 KEESEP). O-Gary and Mary West; B-Dell Ridge Farm, LLC
(KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Drayden Van Dyke. $60,000. Lifetime
Record: 2-2-0-0, $90,000. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple
Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Strongconstitution, 118, c, 2, Constitution–Earlybird Road, by
Cherokee Run. ($57,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP; $220,000 2yo '19
OBSAPR). O-Roadrunner Racing and Sayjay Racing LLC;
B-Stonehaven Steadings (KY); T-Doug F. O'Neill. $20,000.
3–Zimba Warrior, 118, c, 2, Khozan–Slick and True, by Yes It's
True. ($62,000 2yo '19 OBSMAR). O-Charles & Cynthia
Marquis; B-Stonehedge LLC (FL); T-J. Keith Desormeaux.
$12,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 4HF, 8HF. Odds: 1.00, 0.90, 22.20.
Also Ran: Rager. Scratched: Howbeit, Thousand Words. 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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