ARCADIA, Calif. (Feb. 8, 2015)—Idle one day shy of a year, trainer Doug O’Neill’s Birdlover broke sharply from her outside post under Elvis Trujillo and registered an impressive gate to
wire win in Sunday’s $75,000 Wishing Well Stakes for older fillies and mares at 6 ½ furlongs down Santa Anita’s hillside turf course. A 5-year-old English-bred mare, Birdlover prevailed by a half length and got the distance in 1:13.22.
Second, beaten a head in last year’s Wishing Well on Feb. 9, 2014, Birdlover was dispatched at 3-1 in a field of seven and paid $8.60, $4.80 and $3.20.
“It was exactly the trip we wanted,” said Trujillo, who engineered splits of 22.41, 45.17 and 1:07.35. “I know she has a lot of speed. I wanted to save her as much as I could for the
stretch and it was a perfect race.”
Owned by Cseplo, Keh, Kramer and W.C. Racing, Birdlover got her second win from four tries down the hill and improved her overall mark to 14-4-5-0. With the winner’s share of $47,100, she improved her earnings to $219,535.
“She’s trained so good and she’s just so honest,” said O’Neill. “This is really a credit to (assistant) Steve Rothblum, because there was talk of retiring her. She had fractured her
hock (upper hind leg) and she had done so much for us and we could have retired her without having surgery. She was sound enough to do that. But Steve said we should operate and try to bring her back.
“I think she’s a miler. We had her in the (one mile turf) Megahertz, but she was the only also eligible and we didn’t get in. She’s got that kind of ability, but this race came up and
Breaking from the rail with Flavien Prat, Indecise saved ground early, split horses while four-wide a furlong from home and was gradually gaining on the winner at the wire. Idle since Jan. 19, 2014, she was off at 12-1 and paid $9.80 and $4.40.she was doing well.”
Fanticola, who was the second choice at 2-1, sat close to the pace with Martin Garcia and completed the trifecta, finishing 1 ¼ lengths behind Indecise. Fanticola paid $2.80 to show.
Racing resumes at Santa Anita on Thursday and will continue through Monday, Presidents’ Day. First post on Thursday is 1 p.m. Admission gates open at 11 a.m.
Press Release Courtesey of Santa Anita Park
Santa Anita Park is a Stronach Group company, North America’s leading Thoroughbred racetrack owner/operator. The Stronach Group racetracks include Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park & Casino, Golden Gate Fields, Portland Meadows, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, home of the world-famous Preakness. The company owns and operates the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida, and is one of North America’s top race horse breeders through its award-winning Adena Springs operation. The Stronach Group is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pari-mutuel wagering systems, technologies and services. Its companies include AmTote, a global leader in wagering technology; Xpressbet, an Internet and telephone account wagering service; and Monarch Content Management, which acts as a simulcast purchase and sales agent of horseracing content for numerous North American racetracks and wagering outlets.The Stronach Group is also a major producer of televised horseracing programming through its HRTV cable and satellite network and is North America’s premier supplier of virtual online horseracing games, as well as a leading producer of social media content for the horseracing industry.