ARCADIA, Calif. (Nov. 1, 2013) – Longshot Better Bet pulled away around the turn and couldn’t be caught as he won Friday’s $200,000 Golden State Juvenile for 2-year-olds eligible to the Golden State Series on the Breeders’ Cup card at Santa Anita.
Better Bet is by Southern Image, out of the Swiss Yodeler mare Short Sentence, was bred by Revocable Trust of Mikel Harrington and Patricia Harrington, is owned by Mike Harrington Trustee, is trained by Mike Harrington and was ridden by Martin Pedroza.
“I knew Martin (Pedroza) fits this horse to a tee,” said Mike Harrington. “He needed a Pedroza. I’m not sure it was that important to get in front today because the horse is tactical. In fact, he loves to lay off horses, but his last race he had no shot. It just set up good for him today. He’s a better horse than the way he’s been running. Like all horse races, things just had to turn out right. Fortunately, in a $200,000 race, things turned out right.”
Better Bet has two wins in nine starts, earnings of $190,130 and was coming off a seventh in the Sept. 28 FrontRunner.
Better Bet ran the mile in 1:37.53 and won by a neck at odds of 47-1. Electric Eddie was second and favored Tamarando was third in the field of nine.
“I watched the tape of his last race when (Alberto) Delgado rode him and I could see he got forced out really wide on the first turn,” said Pedroza. “He was out toward the middle of the racetrack and you could see that he didn’t run that bad. Today, I wanted to get him into the race and we were able to save ground pretty good into the first turn. When I asked him, he gave me everything he had.”
For Better Bet’s pedigree, click http://www.pedigreequery.com/better+bet2.
