Brickyard Ride regains winning form in Thor's Echo
ARCADIA, Calif. – Conditions were made to order for Brickyard Ride on Saturday at Santa Anita, where the front-runner took advantage of a soft pace scenario to score a decisive victory in the $100,500 Thor’s Echo Stakes for California-bred sprinters.
The win marked a welcome return to form for Brickyard Ride. After back-to-back stakes wins in January and March, he lost twice at odds-on. In both defeats, he was hounded though blistering first-quarter-miles in 21 and change.
There was no such speed in the six-furlong Thor’s Echo, and when Brickyard Ride and jockey Juan Hernandez established the lead with an easy opening quarter in 22.62, the race was effectively over.
Brickyard Ride ($5.20 favorite) won the Thor’s Echo by 4 3/4 lengths over Colt Fiction. Fashionably Fast finished 1 1/4 lengths back in third. Loud Mouth and Jamming Eddy completed the order of finish. Whooping Jay was eased in the stretch, but he walked off the track.
Craig Lewis trains Brickyard Ride, owned by breeder Alfred Pais. The win was Brickyard Ride’s third stakes victory of the Santa Anita meet. He won the California Cup Sprint and Grade 2 San Carlos before misfiring twice after he was dogged through hot fractions.
“There wasn’t the same kind of heat today,” Lewis acknowledged. “If this horse gets loose and it’s not a rapid pace, he’s tough.”
Brickyard Yard went the opening half-mile in 45.16 seconds; the final time for six furlongs was 1:09.34. The win was Brickyard Ride’s eighth from 16 starts; he has earned $464,477. The 4-year-old is the leading male progeny sired by Clubhouse Ride, and the only male at the current Santa Anita meet to win three stakes.
The win also gave Pais an early birthday present. He turns 68 on Sunday.
The stakes was the 11th of the meet for Hernandez, who was riding Brickyard Ride for the first time. Hernandez is Santa Anita’s second-leading rider by total wins, behind Flavien Prat. Hernandez is the third-leading stakes rider behind Prat and Umberto Rispoli.