Gutierrez continues torrid streak with wins in Sugar Bowl, Pago Hop
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Reylu Gutierrez, riding his first Fair Grounds meet, had a memorable Sunday, winning two stakes and three races overall, including a pair for trainer Steve Asmussen.
And then Gutierrez went out and had an even better Monday.
Gutierrez won four races on the 10-race Monday program, three of them stakes, and the last aboard Chattalot, an Asmussen-trained colt who went wire to wire in the $75,000 Sugar Bowl for 2-year-olds.
Chattalot broke on top from post 1 and assumed command over heavily favored Higher Standard, going a pressured opening quarter-mile in 22.05 and a half in 45.35. Underhill’s Tab, making his second start, loomed at the quarter pole, coming outside Higher Standard and drawing nearly abreast Chattalot, but Gutierrez drove to the wire and Chattalot held sway by three-quarters of a length.
“I just let him break and get his feet under him,” said Gutierrez, who rode Chattalot for the first time. “The rail’s been good to me all weekend -- why not take it.”
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Chattalot, racing on Lasix for the first time while making his fifth start, won for the third time, ending a two-race losing streak that had followed a Saratoga debut score in August and a Churchill allowance win in October. He was timed in 1:10.03 for six furlongs on a fast track and paid $10 to win.
Underhill's Tab ran well in defeat, finishing clear of third-place Blue Kentucky, as Higher Standard came up empty the final furlong, checking in fifth.
Chattalot, bred by Gryphon Investments, is owned by Bloom Racing and David Bernsen. He’s bv Midnight Lute out of Mamboalot, by Kingmambo – and had the right rider on his back Monday.
*Pago Hop
Trainer Bret Calhoun and jockey Reylu Gutierrez swept the 3-year-old turf stakes Monday at Fair Grounds when Lovely Ride followed Excess Magic’s win in the Woodchopper with a victory in the $75,000 Pago Hop for 3-year-old fillies.
Lovely Ride ($20.80) was making her turf debut for Calhoun and Chester Thomas’s Allied Racing. By Candy Ride out of Lovely Lil, by Tiznow, Lovely Ride was a stakes winner on dirt and held her form on the surface switch, getting a favorable forward trip in a slow-paced race.
Touch of Class, a 25-1 shot who held on for fourth, set the pace, going her opening half-mile in 49.30 seconds with Lovely Ride in the second flight of fillies. Touch of Class wandered to the center of the course in upper stretch, leaving Gutierrez to guide Lovely Ride between her and rail running Barrista, the winner making the lead in the final half-furlong and hitting the wire three quarters of a length in front of pace pressing Amiche. Barrista faded in the late stages while Princess Theorem, finishing fastest, rallied for third, a neck behind Amiche.
Lovely Ride, a homebred, was timed in 1:38.56 – a half-second slower than Excess Magic -- for one mile on a firm grass course.