Santa Anita: Winning Prize showing versatility

ARCADIA, Calif. – The turf miler Winning Prize is proving dangerous in a variety of racing scenarios.

The 5-year-old Winning Prize stalked the pace in the Grade 2 Arcadia Stakes over a mile on turf Feb. 1 and won by 1 1/2 lengths. In Saturday’s $350,000 Frank Kilroe Mile, Winning Prize led throughout and won by a half-length over the Florida invader Lochte.

Those wins have given trainer Neil Drysdale and owners David Heerensperger and Jose Nelson reasons to be optimistic for the rest of the 2014 season. The focus is having Winning Prize ready for the Breeders’ Cup Mile here Nov. 1.

Winning Prize won three Group 1 stakes in South America in 2012 before joining Drysdale’s stable in the spring of 2013. The Arcadia Stakes and Kilroe Mile are his first two stakes wins in the United States.

“He’s becoming more adaptable the more we race him,” Drysdale said after the race.

On Sunday, Drysdale said Winning Prize’s spring campaign will be determined in the coming weeks.

“I think we’ll keep him home as much as possible,” he said.

One stakes that will be considered in late spring is the $400,000 Shoemaker Mile on June 14. The race was formerly run at Hollywood Park, which closed in December.

The Kilroe Mile drew a strong field. Lochte won the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap in February. Suggestive Boy, who won the 2013 Kilroe Mile, finished third, a neck in front of Za Approval, who was second to Horse of the Year Wise Dan in the BC Mile last November. Za Approval was the 9-5 favorite in the Kilroe, his first start since the BC Mile.