By Bloodhorse.com
DEL MAR, Calif. (Nov. 18, 2018) — The vintage Solid Wager made an appearance Nov. 18 at Del Mar and won the $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes for Golden State Series eligibles for the third time.
Gary Barber and Stanford Stable’s 7-year-old Birdonthewire gelding never seems to run poorly, but it had been a long time since he won a stakes. Almost two years ago he won the Cary Grant and Midnight Lute (G3) consecutively in 2016. He also won the Cary Grant in 2015.
Since then Solid Wager, bred by Madera Thoroughbreds, placed in three stakes—including a second in the 2017 Cary Grant—and his only win for trainer Peter Miller came in an optional-claiming allowance June 9, in which he was claimed for $40,000 but the claim was voided after a post-race veterinarian inspection.
Flash forward to Sunday in the seven-furlong sprint, and Solid Wager surged from sixth to first from the midway point in the turn to the top of the lane under jockey Drayden Van Dyke, blew by favorites Touching Rainbows and Edwards Going Left (who defeated him in the 2017 Cary Grant), and won by 6 1/4 lengths—the widest winning margin of his 47-race career.
“He never wins like that. He’s always a Stormy Liberal nail biter, gets-up-in-the-last-jump type,” Miller said. “But today he was on it. I know he loves this track. This is his favorite racetrack, and seven-eighths is his favorite distance. It looked like we got a good pace setup, and Drayden kept him in the clear. Once he gets rolling, you don’t want to get him stopped. For a 7-year-old he looked pretty sprightly out there.”
Edwards Going Left held second, a half-length ahead of Brandothebartender, who closed from last to pass Touching Rainbows late for third.
“My horse ran good, but the winner freaked,” said Edwards Going Left’s jockey, Tyler Baze. “He went by me like I was tied to the eighth pole.”
The final time was 1:22.47. Tough But Nice set the early pace of :22.46 and :44.97 through a half-mile, but faded to finish last after Touching Rainbows and Edwards Going Left took over in the turn.
“Oh my,” Van Dyke said after the race. “I was pleasantly surprised by that. He was running great and I had all the horses I was concerned about in my sights. And then he went right on by without me even asking him. He just ran away from them. It’s fun riding horses that run like that.”
The victory in the stakes for California-bred or California-sired horses pushed Solid Wager’s earnings to $740,731 and his record is 10-8-5 from 47 starts. He was bred by Madera Thoroughbreds and was a $3,000 purchase at the 2012 Barretts October Yearling Sale. Sunday’s victory was Solid Wager’s third win in the Cary Grant. His first was in 2015.