By DRF.com
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Oct. 14, 2014) – California-bred Alert Bay wrapped up local Horse of the Year honors with a hard-fought win over longshot Mysterious Soul in the Grade 3, $100,000 Premiers at Hastings on Monday. The Grade 3 British Columbia Derby winner, who was sent off as the favorite in Monday’s 1 3/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up, paid $5.50.
“I had a perfect trip,” Rico Walcott said between breaths following the race. “I had to work hard to get him to relax, but I had a lot of horse the whole way. He fought back when he was challenged, and I was pretty confident they weren’t going to get past him once he made the lead.”
Alert Bay stalked Prohibition and Mysterious Soul, who battled through reasonable interior fractions and were lapped onto each other after six furlongs in 1:12.96. Walcott moved into serious contention on the stretch turn and outdueled a very game Mysterious Soul to win by a neck. Shooting Jacket came from well back to finish a non-threatening third.
Koffee Grinder might have given the winner all he could handle, but he got stopped cold when he was making a big move along the rail approaching the final turn.
Alert Bay is by City Zip, out of the Dushyantor mare Hickory, was bred by Thomas Bell and Ross McLeod, is owned by Peter Redekop and trained by Anita Bolton.
He has five wins in 11 starts, earnings of $368,279 and was coming off a win in the Sept. 14 British Columbia Derby.
The final time over a track rated “sloppy” was 2:17.93.
For Alert Bay’s pedigree, click http://www.pedigreequery.com/alert+bay4.