ARCADIA, Calif. (Feb. 8, 2015)\u2014Idle one day shy of a year, trainer Doug O\u2019Neill\u2019s Birdlover broke sharply from her outside post under Elvis Trujillo and registered an impressive gate to<\/p>\n
wire win in Sunday\u2019s $75,000 Wishing Well Stakes for older fillies and mares at 6 \u00bd furlongs down Santa Anita\u2019s hillside turf course.\u00a0 A 5-year-old English-bred mare, Birdlover prevailed by a half length and got the distance in 1:13.22.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Second, beaten a head in last year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIt was exactly the trip we wanted,\u201d said Trujillo, who engineered splits of 22.41, 45.17 and 1:07.35.\u00a0 \u201cI know she has a lot of speed.\u00a0 I wanted to save her as much as I could for the<\/p>\n
stretch and it was a perfect race.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 With the winner\u2019s share of $47,100, she improved her earnings to $219,535.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s trained so good and she\u2019s just so honest,\u201d said O\u2019Neill.\u00a0 \u201cThis is really a credit to (assistant) Steve Rothblum, because there was talk of retiring her.\u00a0 She had fractured her<\/p>\n
hock (upper hind leg) and she had done so much for us and we could have retired her without having surgery.\u00a0 She was sound enough to do that.\u00a0 But Steve said we should operate and try to bring her back.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI think she\u2019s a miler.\u00a0 We had her in the (one mile turf) Megahertz, but she was the only also eligible and we didn\u2019t get in.\u00a0 She\u2019s got that kind of ability, but this race came up and<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 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.\u00a0 Idle since Jan. 19, 2014, she was off at 12-1 and paid $9.80 and $4.40.she was doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fanticola, who was the second choice at 2-1, sat close to the pace with Martin Garcia and completed the trifecta, finishing 1 \u00bc lengths behind Indecise.\u00a0 Fanticola paid $2.80 to show.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Racing resumes at Santa Anita on Thursday and will continue through Monday, Presidents\u2019 Day.\u00a0 First post on Thursday is 1 p.m.\u00a0 Admission gates open at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
Press Release Courtesey of Santa Anita Park\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Santa Anita Park is a Stronach Group company, North America\u2019s 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\u00a0pari-mutuel\u00a0wagering systems, technologies and services. Its companies include AmTote, a\u00a0global leader in wagering technology; Xpressbet, an\u00a0Internet 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[97,52,2044],"tags":[1551,1552,1553,39,40,1554,1474,308,1555],"class_list":["post-4160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-events-magazine","category-events-magazine","category-magazine","tag-birdlover","tag-califronia","tag-elvis-trujillo","tag-equestrian","tag-horse","tag-indecise","tag-racing","tag-santa-anita-park","tag-trujillo"],"yoast_head":"\n