Cohens' big bet Ultimate Gamble makes debut Saturday
DEL MAR, Calif. – Spending $1.75 million for a 2-year-old just might be the Ultimate Gamble for Jed and Tim Cohen, who decided to throw in for that amount for a Medaglia d’Oro colt who debuts Saturday in race 7 at Del Mar for trainer Mark Glatt.
Ultimate Gamble is out of the Ghostzapper mare Eltimaas, making him a half-brother to Drefong, who won the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and, subsequently, that year’s Eclipse Award as champion male sprinter.
Glatt said he believes Ultimate Gamble will be a better two-turn horse, and that’s one of the reasons he and the Cohens waited for Saturday’s race, the first dirt sprint for 2-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs on this circuit this year.
“It’s a crapshoot with a young horse, but he’s a half-brother to a good horse, and he looks like a horse who will like two turns, which you want when you give that kind of money,” Glatt said. “Two turns is probably where he’ll excel, but at 6 1/2, hopefully that’s enough for him to show what he can do.”
The Cohens – Jed is the father, Tim the son – race, respectively, as Red Barons Barn and Rancho Temescal. They have been longtime owners based in Southern California, but this is the most expensive auction buy they’ve ever made.
Ultimate Gamble was purchased in Ocala in April, and after the requisite brief break following the sale, Glatt said the colt settled right into his routine at Santa Anita and then Del Mar.
“He hasn’t missed a beat,” said Glatt, who said that in addition to looking the part physically, what made Ultimate Gamble attractive at the sale was “he worked effortlessly, but fast.”
Mike Smith rides Ultimate Gamble on Saturday in a race that drew, among others, two expensive yearling purchases now trained by Bob Baffert, the first-time starters Cave Rock ($550,000 buy) and Truehood ($700,000).
Tahoma skips Best Pal
Tahoma, runner-up in the Fasig-Tipton Futurity at Santa Anita to his Doug O’Neill-trained stablemate, the filly Absolutely Zero, was among those expected for the Grade 3, $200,000 Best Pal Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar, but O’Neill said he was not entered in preference to a switch to grass for the Del Mar Juvenile Turf on the meet’s closing day, Sept. 11.
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“We’re going to go for the turf stake at the end of the meet. He’s got grass on both sides of his pedigree,” O’Neill said.
Tahoma is by Justify out of the Rahy mare Madera Dancer. He has worked approximately once a week over the past month, most recently going three furlongs in 36.60 seconds last Sunday.
Tahoma is 1 for 2. He won his debut at Santa Anita May 22 going 4 1/2 furlongs.
* Florent Geroux will be absent from Del Mar on Saturday in order to ride Set Piece in the Arlington Million and Princess Grace in the Beverly D. at Churchill Downs.
* Declan Cannon, who was suspended through Saturday for careless riding, will be at Emerald Downs Sunday to ride Majestic Eagle in the Longacres Mile.