There Goes Harvard leaves chalk players crimson-faced with Hollywood Gold Cup upset

There Goes Harvard got an Ivy League ride from Irad Ortiz Jr. and pulled off an upset on Monday at Santa Anita by taking down Grade 1, $400,000 Hollywood Gold Cup in his graded stakes debut.

Ortiz saved ground for the first six furlongs of the 1 1/4-mile race, was able to tip out and secure a clean lane heading into the stretch, and used his strength to keep There Goes Harvard, who seemed prone to lug in, on a straight course to reel in pacesetting Defunded and prevail by one length.

Defunded, who deserved a better fate, set a sharp pace while hounded by Stilleto Boy, put away that rival, and only was nailed in the final sixteenth. He finished 3 1/4 lengths in front of even-even money favorite Royal Ship. Stilleto Boy was fourth, and Spielberg was last throughout.

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There Goes Harvard ($19.60), the fourth choice in the field of five, was literally the last horse entered in the race on Friday, the decision to run owing to the small field, the overall quality of that field, and the fact There Goes Harvard was coming into the race off a pair of victories at Santa Anita, albeit against softer competition.

"Small field, you have to take a shot," winning trainer Michael McCarthy told Santa Anita's publicity staff. "The horse is doing well and sometimes you just have to take a chance."

The Gold Cup could not have unfolded better for There Goes Harvard. Defunded set off at a sharp pace, with Stilleto Boy on his flank, as they flew through the opening quarter in 22.76 seconds and half in 46.13 seconds. There Goes Harvard sat fourth along the rail, just inside of Royal Ship, getting an ideal trip behind the dueling leaders.

As the field went around the far turn, Defunded gained separation from Stilleto Boy, who was all in with three furlongs to go, and There Goes Harvard was easily able to push aside Royal Ship and secure room. The race was fast early, slow late, with There Goes Harvard completing 1 1/4 miles on the fast main track in 2:02.66. He earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure, a career best.

“My horse was fighting a little bit with me going into the first turn, they went a little fast," Ortiz said. "I tried to let him relax, settle a little bit, and he did come back to me on the backside. That was the key. After that, I was just biding my time and kicked him out down the stretch and he responded really well."

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For Ortiz, the win was his third in the day's first four races, and he came right back a half-hour later to take the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile with Count Again, giving him four victories, two in Grade 1 races.

There Goes Harvard, 4, has been a late developer. He did not defeat maidens until his sixth start last June at Ellis Park, and only had raced once previously in a stakes race, when second in the listed Ellis Park Derby two starts later.

After a seven-month layoff, he was second in a first-level allowance at Santa Anita, then dead-heated for a win at that level before his most recent victory, in a second-level allowance on the grass May 14, just 16 days before the Gold Cup.

"The horse has been training very well ever since he came back," McCarthy, who trains There Goes Harvard for his breeder, Michael Cannon's Cannon Thoroughbreds, said on TVG. "We knew a mile and a quarter wouldn't be an issue."

There Goes Harvard, a colt by Will Take Charge out of the Fusaichi Pegasus mare Soul Crusader, has now won four times in 12 starts. The $240,000 winner's share from the Gold Cup dwarfed what he'd made in his 11 previous starts combined.

Defunded, coming off a runaway allowance win going a mile in his first start in nine months, just failed to see out the mile and a quarter, the pace obviously contributing to his weakening late.

"He broke good and I left him alone," said his rider, Abel Cedillo. "He took me to the lead. When I went to go home, he tried very hard. It was his first time going a mile and a quarter."

Royal Ship was going well early, according to jockey Mike Smith, but the final portion of the race, "his head was coming up and getting higher and higher," Smith said.

"Hopefully they'll take a look and see the reason why," he said.

Stilleto Boy, coming off a front-running victory in the Grade 2 Californian, "didn't accelerate like last time," said his rider, Juan Hernandez.

--additional reporting by Steve Andersen