ARCADIA, Calif. (Dec. 26, 2016) — Course specialist Bettys Bambino returned spectacularly from a 22-month layoff by winning Monday’s $102,415 Grade III San Simeon Stakes, his fifth consecutive victory, all on Santa Anita’s unique hillside turf course.
Bettys Bambino is by Unusual Heat, out of the High Brite mare Brite Betty, was bred by owners Alesia, Ciaglia and Mellen and is trained by Peter Eurton.
“We’ve been away 22 months and I was just hoping we’d run and then run back in the Cal Cup (Sprint, Jan. 28),” said Joe Ciaglia. “This is so amazing. He was one week away from running here last spring and he hurt his shoulder. I can’t believe it. We came from off the pace and there were some good horses in here. Breeding horses like this . . . owning the mare, breeding her and seeing her kids grow up, it’s just an amazing experience. There’s nothing more satisfying.”
Bettys Bambino has seven wins in 11 starts, earnings of $378,036 and was making his first start since Feb. 21, 2015, when he scored in the Sensational Star for his fourth consecutive win. He ran the about 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:11.95 and won by 2 1/4 lengths.
“It’s hard to give horses that only have 10 starts some preps but it was a great race,” said Eurton. “After his last race he came up with a suspensory so we did a scan and he had a little lesion, nothing horrible. So, we did a little PRP on him, he took six months off and he came back training great for the race. No issues whatsoever. We had to give him the normal time off to recover and here he is today. It took a lot of waiting and a lot of patience. We could’ve easily given up but that would just be a waste of talent.”