Catch a Flight chases down favorite to win Californian

ARCADIA, Calif. – The $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 27 has its favorite.

Catch a Flight, a 5-year-old Argentine-bred horse, won his second consecutive stakes in Saturday’s $200,000 Californian Stakes, his third win in his last four starts. Ridden by Gary Stevens, Catch a Flight ($6.60) closed from third with a wide rally to catch the 6-5 favorite Moreno in early stretch. The two ran within a neck of each other until the final strides when Catch a Flight prevailed by a half-length.

Catch a Flight ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.73.

“It’s on to the Hollywood Gold Cup,” said winning trainer Richard Mandella, referring to the former name of the Gold Cup at Santa Anita when the race was run at now-closed Hollywood Park.

Catch a Flight raced wide through the Grade 2 Californian but always was close to the front. Stevens had Catch a Flight in third for the first seven furlongs, tracking the pacesetter Big Cazanova and Moreno through early fractions of 22.86 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 46.94 for the first half-mile.

Moreno took the lead on the turn from Big Cazanova when Catch a Flight moved into contention. Moreno and Catch a Flight were side by side entering the stretch.

“He responded pretty quickly,” Mandella said. “Gary knows him very well, better than I do. He beat Moreno, and that’s an accomplishment.”

Mandella said he was not concerned about Catch a Flight racing fairly close to the pace early.

“You wonder about the last quarter more than anything,” Mandella said. “We figured he’d be off the first two. I was wondering whether he’d catch them.”

Moreno finished a clear second, 3 1/2 lengths in front of Hard Aces, who was followed by Blue Tone, Sammy Mandeville, Lideris, Big Cazanova, and Bailoutbobby.

This was the second meeting of the year between Moreno and Catch a Flight, who were second and third behind Shared Belief in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7. Moreno later won the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic in West Virginia, a race in which Shared Belief was pulled up with a hip injury.

Shared Belief currently is out of training.

Catch a Flight, by Giant’s Causeway, won the Grade 3 Precisionist Stakes here on May 2. He won an optional claimer here in February in his second start in the U.S.

Owned by Julio Bozano’s Haras Santa Maria de Araras, Catch a Flight has won 9 of 15 starts and earned $393,239.