Unusual Suspect heading to Australia

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Barry Abrams is going to have to switch from lox and bagels to barramundi and Vegemite. After sending out Unusual Suspect to victory on Saturday in the Grade 1, $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup, Abrams said Unusual Suspect would be heading to Australia to race next year, with designs on the Melbourne Cup and what Abrams views as a more favorable environment to become a potential stallion.

“He’s ready for two-mile races,” said Abrams, who trains and is a co-owner of Unusual Suspect. “This horse deserves to be a stallion, and there’s no market for stallions like him here.”

Unusual Suspect was winless in 13 starts this year and had won just once in his previous 22 starts. But he picked the right day to break through by wearing down Temple City to score the first Grade 1 win of his career.

“He’s won at Bay Meadows, Golden Gate, Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar,” Abrams said. “He won the six-furlong Hollywood Turf Express, the Cal Cup Mile, the Cougar II, and now he’s won a Grade 1 race. But in this country, distance horses aren’t popular stallions.”

Unusual Suspect, 6, is owned by Abrams, his wife, Dyan, and his brother David, who bred the son of Unusual Heat in California. Unusual Suspect was coming off a second-place finish in the California Cup Classic on the main track here during the Oak Tree meeting on Oct. 30.

Earlier this year, he was second in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap, second in the Cougar II Handicap – a race he won in 2009 – and third in the Sunset Handicap, all graded events at 1 1/2 miles or farther.

Saturday’s first prize of $150,000 brought Unusual Suspect’s career earnings to $1,035,171. He is the second millionaire Abrams has trained. The first was Guts, a Standardbred.

Abrams said he had not decided who would train Unusual Suspect in Australia.

Positive test results in Benecia’s DQ

Benecia, who won the ninth race at Fairplex Park on Sept. 26, has been disqualified from all purse monies in that race because of a positive test for the Class 3 drug Indomethacin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, in a ruling issued by Hollywood Park’s stewards over the weekend.

The medication was found in the post-race urine sample by the University of California’s Maddy Analytical Laboratory, which does testing for the California Horse Racing Board.

Benecia was trained by Mike Pender and was ridden by Martin Pedroza. Those men, along with the partnership that owns Benecia, were ordered to return their earnings from the race to the paymaster of purses at Hollywood Park by Dec. 13.

Sly Kitty is now the official winner of the race, with Bourree second and Warren’s Haldfull third.

Kinsale King will ship to Hong Kong

After racing in Dubai and England earlier this year, Kinsale King is now headed to the International Races in Hong Kong next month, according to his trainer, Carl O’Callaghan.

Kinsale King most recently ran seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He worked five furlongs on the main track Sunday in 59.40 seconds.

O’Callaghan said Kinsale King could have one prep before going to Hong Kong, perhaps on Nov. 25 in the Vernon O. Underwood, a race he won last year. Another possibility is an overnight stakes on turf, Callaghan said. The Hong Kong race, which will be run Dec. 12, is on turf.