Thursday, August 23, 2012

Romantic Wish, Gomez Win Del Mar Feature

Arnold Zetcher’s English-bred Romantic Wish, second in her last three races, ended her losing streak in style Wednesday with a hard-fought victory in Del Mar’s feature, a mile and one-sixteenth event over the main track for older fillies and mares.

Prominent from the start, Romantic Wish rallied from between horses entering the stretch under the expert guidance of jockey Garrett Gomez and outfinished 6-5 favored Maker Or Breaker by a head, with 10-1 longshot Jaredella another nose back in third place. Hoosier Honey was fourth in the field of six.


Romantic Wish, trained by Ben Cecil, ran the distance in 1:44 flat and paid $9.20, $3.20 and $2.20. Maker Or Breaker, with Rafael Bejarano in the saddle, returned $2.80 and $2.20, while Jaredella, with Juan Hernandez up, paid $4 to show.

The winner is a four-year-old daughter of Hawk Wing who raced in England in 2011, making her U.S. debut at Santa Anita in early March of this year. The victory was her third in 19 lifetime outings.

With no perfect tickets in the Pick Six, Thursday’s program will have a carryover of $89,785. Post time for the first race is 2 p.m., with the Pick Six on races three through eight.

Wednesday’s attendance was 11,176.

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