B Squared points to Crystal Water Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – B Squared has earned $347,128 in his career. Success in California-bred stakes is a major reason for his big bankroll.

On Saturday, B Squared won his third stakes for statebreds in the $100,000 Thor’s Echo Handicap at six furlongs at Santa Anita. He probably will run next in the $100,000 Crystal Water Stakes for Cal-breds at a mile on turf May 20.

Owned by breeders Paul and Zillah Reddam and trained by Doug O’Neill, B Squared has won 4 of 15 starts. He won two stakes for statebreds last year, both on turf – the Silky Sullivan Stakes at Golden Gate Fields last spring and the California Flag Handicap at Santa Anita last October.

B Squared has earned $284,745 in statebred races. His best result in open company was a third in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby behind West Coast last July. Last November, B Squared was ninth at 51-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar.

In the Thor’s Echo, B Squared was third for the first half-mile before taking the lead in early stretch under jockey Mario Gutierrez. B Squared ($9.20) won by a neck over 3-5 favorite Tough Sunday.

“He got to do what he wants,” O’Neill said of race tactics. Tough Sunday “got pressed, and that helped us a ton.”

B Squared was O’Neill’s first stakes winner at Santa Anita since How About Zero won the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint in January and was his first stakes winner at any venue since Blended Citizen won the Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park on March 17.

Blended Citizen was later fifth in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 7 and is a candidate for the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Churchill Downs on May 5, O’Neill said.