11/20/2011 6:59PM

Hollywood Park: Sanagas earns extended vacation until 2012

By Steve Andersen
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BENOIT PHOTO
Trainer Graham Motions says it's unlikely that Sanagas, winner of Saturday's Hollywood Turf Cup, will race this winter at Gulfstream Park.

Sanagas, who won his Grade 1 debut in Saturday’s $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup, will have the winter off and will be pointed to races beginning in the spring, trainer Graham Motion said.

Sanagas is scheduled to be sent back to Motion’s base in Maryland, and is unlikely to start at the Gulfstream Park meeting.

“I might keep him north and point him for the spring campaign,” Motion said after Saturday’s race. “We can point for the nice races in summer and fall.”

Owned by Andreas Jacobs, Sanagas has won 7 of 10 starts and $222,282. A German-bred 5-year-old gelding, Sanagas joined Motion’s stable earlier this year, and won 3 of 5 starts in his American campaign this year.

All the wins came in stakes – the restricted John’s Call Stakes at Saratoga and the Grade 3 Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland in October prior to the Hollywood Turf Cup.

Before Saturday’s Turf Cup, Motion was optimistic that Sanagas would run well enough to justify pointing the gelding to the major marathon turf stakes in 2012. The performance did nothing to sway that opinion.