Wake Up Nick breaks track mark in debut

ARCADIA, Calif. – A track-record performance by the 2-year-old first-time starter Wake Up Nick on Thursday has co-owner Dennis O’Neill hoping for a stakes appearance in June.

Wake Up Nick, by Cindago, won a maiden race for California-breds by 9 1/4 lengths, finishing 4 1/2 furlongs in 51.22 seconds under jockey Mario Gutierrez. The previous mark of 51.40 seconds – or 51 2/5 – was set in 1972 by Willy Float.

O’Neill said that sending Wake Up Nick to the $125,000 Santa Anita Juvenile over 5 1/2 furlongs June 22 – or even a race at Royal Ascot in England in June – has been discussed with co-owner Paul Reddam. The Royal Ascot race is considered a remote possibility, O’Neill said.

Trained by Dennis’s brother, Doug, Wake Up Nick was purchased for $35,000 at the Barretts March sale of select 2-year-olds in training this year.

“We bought him to play around with, and he’s exceeded our expectations,” Dennis O’Neill said. “The first time that Doug breezed him, he said he was a good horse. When Mario worked him, he said, ‘Are you sure he’s a 2-year-old?’ ”

In the maiden race, Wake Up Nick rallied three wide to reach the front in early stretch and pulled away.

“He came out of it in very good shape,” O’Neill said.

This is the first time that Santa Anita has run a spring-summer meeting, replacing dates previously held by Hollywood Park, which closed last December. The early-meet Hollywood Park juvenile races were run at 4 1/2 furlongs. The Santa Anita Juvenile is the only open stakes for the division at this meeting.

The $125,000 Landaluce Stakes over 5 1/2 furlongs for 2-year-old fillies will be run on the same June 22 program. Robo Girl, who won a maiden race for California-bred 2-year-old fillies April 25, is a candidate for the Landaluce, trainer Gary Sherlock said Friday.