Blame the Rider clearly happier on turf

ARCADIA, Calif. - Not much worked for Blame the Rider in his first five starts, all on dirt. From October to early March, his best result was a third in a maiden race.

But Blame the Rider has been perfect since he was switched to turf last month. A win in a maiden race on April 14 was followed by a stakes win in Saturday’s $101,035 Singletary Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile at Santa Anita.

The Singletary result left owners Paul and Zillah Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill planning summer starts in turf stakes for Blame the Rider, with one exception. Blame the Rider earned $60,000 in the Singletary and is no longer eligible to run in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf at Del Mar on July 18. The Oceanside is restricted to horses that have not won a first-place purse of $50,000 or more.

Instead, Blame the Rider will be considered for the $100,000 Rainbow Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on June 16. Such an engagement would have seemed improbable earlier this year, even for the Reddams and O’Neill, who are not afraid of trying maidens in stakes.

Blame the Rider was the sort of colt who lacked focus.

“He didn’t apply himself 100 percent,” O'Neill said. “We’re getting better results on the turf.”

Jockey Mario Gutierrez has ridden Blame the Rider in all seven of his starts. Gutierrez took Blame the Rider to the lead in his maiden race and had the colt disputing the pace in the Singletary before taking control in the final furlong.

“Being on the lead seems to help,” Paul Reddam said. “It might be the training.”

O’Neill lightly disputed the theory.

“Let’s rule that out,” he said.

Blame the Rider, who was bought for $320,000 at the 2017 Ocala Breeders’ Sale March event for 2-year-olds in-training, was the third of four winners in a three-day span for the Reddams and O’Neill. On Friday, Quant Savant won the circuit’s first race for 2-years-olds hours before the 4-year-old Stone Hands won an allowance race with a $40,000 claiming option.

On Sunday, they teamed to win a starter allowance on the hillside turf course with An Eddie Surprise.

Quant Savant, a Square Eddie filly bred by the Reddams, won a maiden race at 4 1/2 furlongs for California-bred fillies by 1 1/4 lengths as the 1-2 favorite. Ridden by Gutierrez, Quant Savant led throughout and was timed in 54.26 seconds.

There are no stakes for 2-year-olds at the current Santa Anita spring-summer meeting, which ends June 24, or at the three-week Los Alamitos summer meeting in late June and early July. The first stakes opportunity for Quant Savant in Southern California is the $100,000 CTBA Stakes for 2-year-old statebred fillies at Del Mar on Aug. 1.