Nikki's Sandcastle changes tactics to take Hanshin Cup
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ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Nikki’s Sandcastle won one race from five starts in 2013 and had started his 2014 campaign, at age 7, losing his first four races. The losing, though, always appeared more a product of tough luck and poor circumstances than a sign of age-related decline, and Nikki’s Sandcastle’s breakthrough Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Hanshin Cup at Arlington was not especially surprising.
The way in which he won the race, however, would not have been easy to forecast.
Typically a stretch-runner in longer two-turn races on turf and dirt, Nikki’s Sandcastle attended a robust pace racing a one-turn Polytrack mile in the Hanshin. He kept up easily under Leandro Goncalves, surged wide to the lead in upper stretch, and sustained his run to beat Mister Marti Gras by a half-length.
Goncalves said the fact speed had been holding well Saturday on Arlington’s main track dictated tactics.
“We wanted to break and get a little closer, not get too far back,” said Goncalves.
Nikki’s Sandcastle, going easily, looked like a winner three furlongs from home, and, his ears still pricked, he kept giving and giving in the homestretch. Mister Marti Gras, rallying from 11th, nabbed second in the Hanshin for the second year in a row. Pass the Dice, who raced in the second flight, finished another half-length back in third, with Joha rushing from far back in midstretch to run fourth.
Hogy, the 6-5 favorite, pressed a hot 45.81-second half-mile split, but faded badly while caught between horses into the homestretch, checking in 12th.
Nikki’s Sandcastle, a Castledale gelding trained by Dave Kassen for owner-breeder Richard Sherman, ran one mile in 1:35.57, paid $16.40, and won for the 10th time in 40 starts.