Accelerate targets Gold Cup at Santa Anita

ARCADIA, Calif. – Accelerate, second by a neck in the Grade 1 Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas on Saturday, will be pointed for the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 26, trainer John Sadler said on Sunday.

Accelerate was the 6-5 favorite and 123-pound topweight in the $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap at 1 1/8 miles. Accelerate was second in early stretch and could not hold off fellow Californian City of Light, who carried 120 pounds. Untrapped, the winner of the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park last fall, finished third, beaten 10 1/4 lengths.

“It was his ‘A’ race,” Sadler said of Accelerate’s performance. “He gave weight to a good horse. They beat the third horse by 10 lengths.”

Owned by Pete and Kosta Hronis, Accelerate won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on March 10. The $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita is run at 1 1/4 miles.

City of Light is a candidate for the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile at Belmont Park on June 9.

Sadler has finalized long-range plans for two other 2018 stakes winners owned by the Hronis family – Edwards Going Left and Selcourt.

Edwards Going Left was withdrawn from Saturday’s Thor’s Echo Handicap for California-bred sprinters on race morning. He will be pointed for the Del Mar summer meeting. The first major sprint of that meet is the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs on July 28.

“He’s had a lot of hard races in a row,” Sadler said.

Earlier this year, Edwards Going Left won the California Cup Sprint for statebreds and was third behind City of Light in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes on March 10.

Selcourt, the winner of the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares on March 24, will start next in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on June 2.