This Ones for Phil wins Swale by DQ

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Big Drama and This Ones for Phil put on quite a show Saturday, battling eyeball to eyeball down the Gulfstream Park stretch and doing so in track-record time. But in the end it was the stewards who ultimately decided the $150,000 Swale, disqualifying Big Drama and awarding This Ones for Phil the victory in the Grade 2, seven-furlong stakes.

Big Drama's final time of 1:20.88 eclipsed the old record of 1:21.11 set by Exclusive Quality three years earlier.

Big Drama, making his first start since winning the Delta Jackpot on Dec. 5, controlled the early pace with This Ones for Phil settling in just behind the leader. Jockey Garrett Gomez eased This Ones for Phil alongside Big Drama entering the stretch and appeared to have him measured at that point. But Big Drama dug in gamely, withstanding the stretch-long challenge while drifting out slightly to brush This Ones for Phil once inside the eighth pole and then again in the shadow of the wire.

"He got me on more than one occasion," said Gomez. "He got me at the eighth pole and again right at the wire when my horse was coming back at him."

After deliberating for several minutes, the stewards reversed the original order of finish. Custom for Carlos finished third, another 4 1/2 lengths farther back.

"That was big, man," said This Ones for Phil's trainer Rick Dutrow, who watched the race from Keeneland. "I thought we had him turning for home and the other horse showed up the right way and fought back. Both horses ran great, but I felt we would have won if they both kept a straight path. It was a great horse race and great for horse racing."

This Ones for Phil, who missed some training time since his fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth four weeks earlier, paid $5.20 as the slight favorite in a field of six 3-year-olds.

"What I saw was a new track record and I got taken down," said David Fawkes, the trainer of Big Drama.

Appleton: Kiss the Kid prevails

Kiss the Kid won his second stakes of the meet, rallying to a half-length victory over Artic Cry in the $100,000 Appleton. Passager finished another three-quarters of a length farther back in third.

Kiss the Kid covered the 7 1/2 furlongs on turf in 1:28.01. Elvis Trujillo rode Kiss the Kid ($6.80) for trainer Amy Tarrant.

Kiss the Kid, who is owned by Hardacre Farm LLC, had captured the Ft. Lauderdale in his 2009 debut.