Einstein takes the Santa Anita Handicap with a Perfect Ride

March 7, 2009
By Profitus Maximus

In Saturday's Santa Anita Handicap, Einstein showed that he could handle a synthetic surface just as well as the dirt and turf as he scored a convincing one length win. Einstein has won graded races on the turf and on regular dirt, but had yet to try his hand over a synthetic surface.

Breaking from post 7, he stalked the expected pacesetters, Matto Mondo and Cowboy Cal and established the perfect position just to their outside by the time they passed the first quarter mile. His position remained relatively unchanged down the backstretch, still sitting in the perfect position in third stalking the two leaders 2 lengths off the pace.

Jockey Julian Leparoux then began to move in on the leaders nearing the quarter pole.

Cowboy Cal, ridden by John Velasquez and trained by Todd Pletcher was one of the more heavily bet entries going off at 5.60-1 odds, but it was clear he was in trouble when nearing the quarter pole, as John Velasquez was riding him hard to try to keep up with Matto Mondo and by the time they turned into the stretch, it was clear Cowboy Cal was going to come up empty.

Meanwhile Einstein moved up to engage Matto Mondo and despite a game fight, the latter could not hold off the brilliance of Einstein as he began to assert his superiority in mid-stretch. The Bobby Frankel trained Champs Elysees came running late to just snatch second from Matto Mondo but never really threatened the winner.

Champs Elysees was a longshot closing at the dismissed odds 27-1, which no doubt helped boost the winning trifecta payout to $939.30 on just a $1 bet.

Morning line favorite Colonel John was scratched from the race, and Matto Mondo went off as the narrow 4.70-1 favorite, indicating that the betting public did not have a strong overall opinion on the race. Einstein paid $12.00 on a $2 win bet.

The final time for the Santa Anita Handicap was a relatively slow 201.93 although this Santa Anita Pro-Ride surface has been slow this past month relative to the first month of the Santa Anita meet, and the early pace was moderate for a Grade 1, with fractions of 24.52, 48.31, 112.93, 137.15, and 201.93. When a field travels slow early, the winning times end up being generally on the slow side, so the time can be accounted for a bit.

Einstein received a modest 100 Beyer Speed Figure for the Big Cap.

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