Rispoli's audible pays off in Santa Ana Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. - For his first ride on the 4-year-old filly Going to Vegas, jockey Umberto Rispoli altered his strategy before Saturday’s Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes for fillies and mares on turf at Santa Anita.

The morning scratch of the allowance-class filly Tapwater left Rispoli with the option of setting the pace on Going to Vegas, a former maiden claimer. The new plan led to Going to Vegas’ first stakes win in the $100,500 Santa Ana against a field that included two Grade 1 winners in the last nine months.

Rispoli had Going to Vegas ($8.60) in front throughout, and won by 3 3/4 lengths over 2-5 Mucho Unusual in a small field of six. Going to Vegas ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:00.80 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 94.

Rispoli’s confidence grew on the backstretch, after Going to Vegas ran the first six furlongs in a modest 1:14.02.

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“At the three-eighths pole, I let her roll a bit and she kept rolling,” Rispoli said. “At the top of the stretch, I pushed the button and she took off.”

Going to Vegas led by a length with a quarter-mile remaining and by two lengths in the stretch, extending her advantage late.

Mucho Unusual, the winner of the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes last September and two Grade 3 stakes at the current winter-spring meeting, was well-placed throughout under jockey Flavien Prat and finished a length clear of 6-1 Red Lark, who is winless in four starts since an upset in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks last August.

Mucho Unusual looked poised to challenge Going to Vegas, but posed no threat in the stretch.

“We just got outrun,” Prat said. “I was not making any ground. She ran her race.”

Neige Blanche finished fourth, followed by Altea and Silberpfeil. In addition to Tapwater, Colonial Creed was scratched early Saturday.

Going to Vegas, a 4-year-old filly by Goldencents, has won 4 of 18 starts and earned $283,751. She was second in three consecutive graded stakes in the final three months of 2020, including the Grade 1 American Oaks in December.

The Santa Ana Stakes was the second start of the year for Going to Vegas, who was fourth in the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes at a mile on turf for fillies and mares on Feb. 20.

Going to Vegas was claimed for $50,000 last June by the partnership of trainer Richard Baltas, Harry Bederian, Harout Kamberian, and Hagop Nakkashian and was sold over the winter to current owners Abbondanza Racing, Medallion Racing, and the My Racehorse syndicate.