Ultimate Gamble starts making back his $1.75 million sale price with 89-Beyer maiden win

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bought for $1.75 million as a 2-year-old last April, Ultimate Gamble won his 3-year-old debut in a maiden race at a mile at Santa Anita on Saturday. While Ultimate Gamble will not be part of the Kentucky Derby, the colt could develop into a stakes runner by summertime.

Ultimate Gamble finished fourth at Del Mar last summer in a highly productive maiden race, in his only start at 2. Race winner Cave Rock later won two Grade 1 races – the Del Mar Futurity and American Pharoah Stakes – and was second as the 1-2 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland last November. Practical Move, who finished second, won the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 4 and starts in Saturday’s Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby.

Ultimate Gamble needed the time between his debut and Saturday’s win to mature, said trainer Mark Glatt.

:: Get ready for Santa Anita racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports.

“He was a big horse and he needed to grow up and fill out and be a 3-year-old,” Glatt said. “We gave him some time to mature. We knew going long was his game all along.

On Saturday, Ultimate Gamble closed from third in a field of five under Frankie Dettori to take the lead in early stretch. Ultimate Gamble pulled clear to win by 2 1/4 lengths in 1:36.68, earning a respectable Beyer Speed Figure of 89.

“He was in a good place,” Glatt said. “When [Dettori] asked him, he responded. It was good to see.”

Glatt said Ultimate Gamble will be considered for an allowance race for his next start.

Poor weather in California this winter disrupted Ultimate Gamble’s training, Glatt said.

The colt, by Medaglia d’Oro, was the second most expensive horse at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales spring auction of 2-year-olds in-training last April. Arabian Knight, the undefeated winner of the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park in his lone start this year, was purchased at the auction for $2.3 million.

Ultimate Gamble races for Rancho Temescal and Red Baron’s Barn. The group owns such stakes winners as Dr. Schivel, Quattroelle, and Packs a Wahlop.

Dr. Schivel, a Grade 1-winning sprinter trained by Glatt, is working for a comeback later this spring after a yearlong layoff.

Quattroelle, trained by Jeff Mullins, has won two graded stakes on turf for fillies and mares this year. Quattroelle was held out of Saturday’s Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes in favor of the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita on May 29.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.

Packs a Wahlop, the winner of two Grade 3 turf stakes for 2-year-olds in 2022 for Mullins, is resting on a local farm but is scheduled to resume racing this summer at Del Mar, according to Tim Cohen of Rancho Temescal.