Hollywood Park: Gutierrez gets ready for Derby by winning Wilshire aboard Quiet Oasis

INGLEWOOD, Calif .- Jockey Mario Gutierrez is bound for the Kentucky Derby next weekend with a stakes win fresh on his mind.

Sunday at Betfair Hollywood Park, Gutierrez rode Quiet Oasis to an upset win in the $100,000 Wilshire Handicap for fillies and mares over a mile on turf. Saturday, Gutierrez rides I’ll Have Another in the Kentucky Derby.

Both Quiet Oasis, trained by Ben Cecil, and I’ll Have Another, trained by Doug O’Neill, are owned by Paul and Zillah Reddam.

In the Grade 3 Wilshire, Gutierrez guided Quiet Oasis ($33.20) from a stalking position on the backstretch into contention by early stretch. With a wide rally, Quiet Oasis won by a half-length over pacesetter Briecat, who finished in a dead heat for second with the 46-1 outsider Antares World.

Briecat set a pace of 23.61 and 47.63 seconds and was caught in the final sixteenth. Nereid, the winner of the Grade 1 American Oaks last year, finished fourth as the 6-5 favorite in the field of eight in her first start of the year.

Quiet Oasis ran a mile on turf in 1:34.63.

“She impressed me with the way she was pulling,” Gutierrez said. “I thought I’d let her run on the turn and she was picking it up. It’s always a good feeling when they run for you.”

For Cecil, the Wilshire was his first stakes win since December. Quiet Oasis made her 2012 debut in the Wilshire, her first start since a sixth in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes here last November. The Wilshire was the first stakes win for Quiet Oasis, a 4-year-old Irish-bred filly by Oasis Dream.

Cecil, who had considered Quiet Oasis for an allowance race this Friday, said the filly will be pointed for the $250,000 Gamely Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on turf on May 28.