| DEL MAR HANDICAP REVIEW 2019 1ST PLACE- #9 Acclimate – Florent Geroux/Phillip D’Amato 2nd Place- #1 Oscar Dominguez(ARG) – Joe Talamo/Richard Batlas 3rd Place- #2 Ritzy A.P. – Martin Garcia/ Dan Blacker 4th Place – #3 Blended Citizen- Aaron Gryder/ Doug O’Neil In the Del Mar Handicap early pace prevailed. However, the closers in the race did make a run for all the marbles. The Winner Acclimate broke from the outside post, and earned an easy lead going the 1 mile and 3/8ths on the grass. Geroux has him in a snug hold on the lead setting rather easy fractions of 24.12/47.70 for the first half mile and finished the race in 2:12.71. The only horse to pressure Acclimate on the backstretch was the #2 horse Ritzy A.P. who ended up finishing 3rd. Acclimate held off the attackers going around the turn and then pulled away a little bit and the only horse to make up ground was the eventual second place finisher #1 Oscar Dominguez. Blended Citizen had a game effort 2nd of the layoff up the rail to hold on to 4th. #6 The Great Day had a very troubled trip. He was covered up on both sides for the majority of the race and when John Velazquez tried to angle him out off the turn, the horse just came up empty and managed to gain 5th. #7 Itsinthepost was in contention on the final turn and then just flattened out and became one paced down the stretch and got outkicked for 5th and finished 6th. Marckie’s Water the 2nd choice on the betting board, just never showed up and was actually the most disappointing horse in the field. At the end of the day, the easy fractions on the lead led to Geroux having just enough horse to hold off the flying Oscar Dominguez coming late. Blended Citizen and Ritzy A.P. were both game towards the rail, and the other 3 were just flat. Great payouts if you choose the right winners and the top 3 or 4 horses. ReplyForward |