Handy Dandy breaks through gate, then breaks through in Let It Ride

DEL MAR, Calif. – Breaking through the Del Mar gate before the start of the $84,600 Let It Ride Stakes was not in the plans for Handy Dandy, jockey Juan Hernandez or trainer Peter Miller.

“Those horses never win,” Miller said. “They never win.”

But sometimes they do, and Handy Dandy did on opening day of the Del Mar fall meet.

Despite pre-race antics, despite Hernandez jamming his right elbow into the starting gate and temporarily losing feeling in his arm, Handy Dandy affirmed his affinity for Del Mar and scored a narrow victory in the Let It Ride, a restricted turf mile for 3-year-olds.

Handy Dandy ($7.80) held off 5-2 favorite Script to win by a nose in 1:37.08. Spycatcher finished three-quarters of a length back in third.

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“My elbow, I didn’t feel it for a little bit,” Hernandez said describing the starting gate incident. “It hit the funny bone. But the horse came from behind the pace and relaxed pretty well, and that helped a lot.”

Handy Dandy rallied from sixth position, made the lead late, then put himself in position to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like often before. “He tends to hang when he hits the lead, that’s why he’s had so many tough beats,” Miller said.

After coming up short his last three photo finishes, Handy Dandy was due for a photo-finish victory over his favorite turf course. Handy Dandy’s five turf starts at Del Mar have produced three wins and two seconds. He has won four races and $266,260 from 13 starts.

Whether the win by Handy Dandy earns him a start in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on Dec. 3 is uncertain, but third-place finisher Spycatcher is a virtual definite. Runner-up in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby two months ago, Spycatcher was using the Let It Ride strictly as a prep for the Hollywood Derby. Mission accomplished for trainer Mark Glatt.

Hernandez, leading rider at the 2021 Del Mar fall meet, won two races Friday along with John Velazquez and Kyle Frey. Phil D’Amato, leading trainer at the 2021 fall meet, was the only trainer to win two races. Opening day attendance was 4,268.

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