Fast Buck leads all the way in Daytona Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. - Before Fast Buck led throughout Saturday’s Grade 3 Daytona Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita, trainer Cesar DeAlba had not won a stakes since Favorite Collossus prevailed in the Governor’s Cup Derby for Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos in August 2021.

A former jockey, DeAlba, 41, is the rare Southern California trainer of both Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. Fast Buck ($6.20) gave DeAlba his first Thoroughbred stakes win in the $101,000 Daytona Stakes on the hillside turf course.

Ridden by Hector Berrios, Fast Buck set the pace in the Daytona, leading by as many as six lengths on the hillside through a brisk early pace of 21.05 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 42.64 for a half-mile.

“He made me nervous,” DeAlba said. “He was going fast.”

Fast Buck held a half-length advantage with a furlong remaining and held off a sustained threat from 3-2 favorite Whatmakessammyrun to win by a neck. Fast Buck ran about 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:11.68 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 92.

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“Berrios said that when he saw the other horse, he dug in,” DeAlba said.

Whatmakessammyrun finished a head in front of 9-1 Lovesick Blues. The remaining order of finish was Burning Turf, Indian Peak, Restrainedvengence and Prince Lancealot.

Fast Buck races for the partnership of Zeyphr Racing, Peter Cruz and DeAlba. A 5-year-old California-bred gelding by Gallant Son, Fast Buck has won 5 of 9 starts and earned $275,474.

The Daytona Stakes was his graded stakes debut and first stakes win. Fast Buck was fourth in the Sensational Star Stakes for statebreds on the hillside turf course in March in his first start since July.

Earlier this month, Fast Buck led throughout an allowance race at six furlongs on the oval turf course.

DeAlba, who won 1,332 races as a jockey, including 90 Quarter Horse stakes at Los Alamitos, retired from riding in December 2018 and began training in early 2019. He currently has a 14-horse stable.

DeAlba won 301 Thoroughbred races, including 268 at Los Alamitos in lower-level competition. He won eight Thoroughbred races at Del Mar, Hollywood Park and Santa Anita in the early 2000s.

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