DEL MAR, Calif. (Aug. 29, 2015) – California-bred odds-on favorite Gimme Da Lute ran his win streak to four with a game victory in Saturday’s $100,000 El Cajon Stakes for 3-year-olds at Del Mar.
The winner survived a claim of foul by Flavien Prat, rider of Desert Dynamo, who finished third.
“When you’ve only got three or four horses in a race, it’s harder to figure out what’s going to happen,” said winning jockey Martin Garcia. “They all wanted to go for the lead in that first turn, so I let them go. Then we went to work. I know that rider (Prat) claimed foul, but he was always behind me and never going to get past. My horse is a fighter. He did that today.”
Gimme Da Lute is by Midnight Lute, out of the Proud Citizen mare Casino Gold, was bred by owners Pegram, Watson and Weitman and is trained by Bob Baffert, who has won this race seven times.
“It was kind of a funny run race,” said assistant trainer Mike Marlow. “It was good early, then it looked like Martin (Garcia) might have made a bit of a premature move. But watching the replay, he had more room than it looked like from the stands when he went through (between horses) there. He ran a game race, he ran tough. He had every reason to get beat and he didn’t.”
Gimme Da Lute has six wins in nine starts, earnings of $627,560 and was coming off a win in the Aug. 2 Real Good Deal.
Gimme Da Lute ran the mile in 1:35.79 and won by one-half length at odds of 1-5 in a field reduced to four by three late scratches.