Brickyard Ride will make Grade 1 debut in the Bing Crosby
Brickyard Ride, the winner of the Thor’s Echo for California-bred sprinters at Santa Anita on Saturday for his third stakes win of the year, will start in a Grade 1 race for the first time in the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on July 31.
The Bing Crosby Stakes is run at six furlongs and is the top sprint of the Del Mar summer meeting. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 6.
“We’ll see if he’s good enough for the Breeders’ Cup and that’s a good place to find out,” trainer Craig Lewis said on Wednesday.
Owned and bred by Sonny Pais, Brickyard Ride led throughout the Thor’s Echo at six furlongs, drawing clear to win by 4 3/4 lengths in 1:09.34. A 4-year-old colt, Brickyard Ride earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 104.
Wednesday, Brickyard Ride was back in action at Santa Anita with a morning jog.
“He looked very good,” Lewis said.
Brickyard Ride has won 8 of 16 starts and earned $464,477. Earlier this year, he won the California Cup Sprint for statebreds at six furlongs on Jan. 16 and the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs on March 6.
Those wins were followed by losses as the odds-on favorite in two more sprints – the Grade 3 Kona Gold Stakes on April 18 and an allowance race on May 7.
“He’s won three stakes at the Santa Anita meeting and I can’t be too unhappy with him,” Lewis said.
Lewis will have one more runner in a stakes before the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting concludes on Sunday. Warren’s Showtime, a five-time stakes winner but winless in five stakes at the current Santa Anita meeting, is a leading contender for Sunday’s Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes, a $100,000 race for fillies and mares at a mile on turf.
Warren’s Showtime has been second or third in her five starts at the current meeting, the most recent of which was a second by three-quarters of a length to Leggs Galore as the 7-10 favorite in the Fran’s Valentine Stakes for statebred fillies and mares at a mile on turf on May 9.
Leggs Galore is a candidate for the Wilshire, trainer Phil D’Amato said on Wednesday.
There are eight stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday and Sunday, including five on turf. The richest races of the weekend are $150,000 stakes for 3-year-old California-breds – the Melair for fillies at 1 1/16 miles on dirt and the Snow Chief Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf.