B Squared has third stakes win in Thor's Echo Handicap

ARCADIA, Calif. - Tough Sunday and Make It a Triple helped B Squared win his third stakes in Saturday’s $100,000 Thor’s Echo Handicap for California-bred sprinters at Santa Anita.

While Tough Sunday and Make It a Triple set the pace, B Squared was well placed in third under jockey Mario Gutierrez through the first half-mile. In the stretch, B Squared rallied three wide to take the lead. The third choice in a field of five, B Squared ($9.20) won by a neck over 7-10 Tough Sunday, who finished 1 1/4 lengths clear of Make It a Triple. B Squared earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

Gutierrez thought he had B Squared well placed on the backstretch, in pursuit of Tough Sunday, who set early fractions of 22.42 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 45.59 for a half-mile but never led by more than a half-length.

“It was a five-horse field,” Gutierrez said. “I didn’t want to go head and head with anybody.”

B Squared was always within a length of the front.

“I didn’t want to give him too much to do,” Gutierrez said. “It was perfect.”

B Squared ran six furlongs in 1:10.09. Smokey Image finished fourth, followed by Grazen Sky.

The complexion of the race changed Saturday morning with the scratch of Edwards Going Left, who won the California Cup Sprint for statebreds in January and was third in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs March 10.

Trainer John Sadler said in a text message that Edwards Going Left was “okay.”

“We’re just passing one,” he wrote.

B Squared, a 4-year-old colt by Square Eddie, races for breeders Paul and Zillah Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill. B Squared has won 4 of 15 starts and earned $347,128, with his greatest success in California-bred races.

Last year B Squared won three times, including the Silky Sullivan Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf at Golden Gate Fields in the spring and the California Flag Handicap for statebreds on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita in the autumn. In between, B Squared was third behind West Coast and Klimt in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby on dirt in the summer.

The Thor’s Echo was B Squared’s first stakes win on dirt.

“We’ve always thought he’s a little better on the grass,” Gutierrez said. “The track seemed kind for him today.”