SHANE Foley made a stand and Platinum Warrior made it count with a definitive move halfway through the Grade 2 San Marcos at Santa Anita February 9th. The Irish-bred four-year-old took charge of the 10-furlong turf stakes and held sway by three-quarters of a length over Epical and Beach View.

Owned by Yuesheng Zhang and trained by John Sadler, the son of Galileo earned his first win since Foley guided him to win the Group 3 Airlie Stud Gallinule Stakes last summer.

“Without a doubt, it was well worth the travel from Ireland for this win,” Foley said.

“I let him go, let him dictate it. I knew his speed was his main attribute. Being on the front end turning into the straight was a bit daunting but I just had to play him at his strengths and I knew if we turned it into a sprint, he’d sprint away.”

A winner over 10 furlongs in Ireland, Platinum Warrior hadn’t gotten a chance to go that distance since rallying to finish fourth in the Grade 1 Secretariat at Arlington Park back in August.

Since that promising American debut, he finished fifth in the Twiligth Derby, 10th in the Hollywood Derby and fifth in the San Gabriel, all at nine furlongs.

“Since we have been training we were always looking at the longer races, we were kind of waiting. The preps are always a little shorter, so we thought he ran well last time. Hopefully we will be able to run him in some longer races as we go along, he can run a mile and a half no problem,” Sadler said.

“I wasn’t too worried about Epical late. He’s by Galileo and these horses have a ton of stamina. So if you get them to the stretch and you’re in front, you’ll probably keep going.”

Irish double at Santa Anita

PLATINUM Warrior completed an Irish-double on the card at Santa Anita. True Valour started it off by upsetting the Thunder Road earlier on the card. Trained by Simon Callaghan for Qatar Racing, the five-year-old son of Kodiac rallied from fifth to storm past Ohio by a half-length in the $100,000 stakes.

Andrea Atzeni, enjoying a busman’s holiday, notched his first career win at Santa Anita.

“The win was always going to happen, these things just take time,” he said. “I’m having a great time here in America. I was going to go back three weeks ago, but I changed my flight to the end of February.

“This is a good place to be, keeping myself fit with the rides and the people have all been really great to me. Hopefully, I come back here.

“I’ve had a great time so far, I’ve been placed a lot of times, I just couldn’t manage to get a win in, it was great to get a win today especially for Simon, he’s been very supportive to me and Sheikh Fahad, he’s a good friend of mine and of course Matt Nakatani, my agent. He’s been good to me and it’s so great to get a winner.

“The horse deserves this because he was a pretty good horse in Europe and he was entitled to a win.”

True Valour won three races in Europe before venturing to America last summer. Winless in his first two tries last year, he bounced back to finish fifth in January before arriving like an Amazon package to take the Thunder Road.

“I just said to Andrea I prefer you to come in late than too early,” Callaghan said. “We held Flavien in in a crucial time and he rode an absolutely perfect race.”

OAKS TARGET

Callaghan took the Las Virgenes earlier on the card with overwhelming favorite Bellafina. Owned by Kaleem Shah and ridden by Flavien Prat, the daughter of Quality Road led every step while pressured by Mother Nature before earning a three-quarter-length win over Enaya Alrabb to pave her way to the Kentucky Oaks in May.

“The main track was a little bit sticky today, and Mother Mother never gave us a break the whole way, so I think it was a good performance obviously when you come off such a scintillating win by a length, many people are disappointed, but we are happy to get the win and we’re going to freshen her up for the Santa Anita Oaks,” Callaghan said.

“When you’re one to nine, maybe people expect you to win by a long distance, but when that other filly came to him, [Prat] was always confident he was going to hold her off.

“We got the job done and that was always the plan, to get two races before the Santa Anita Oaks and we’ll give her a little freshening and look forward to that.”

upsets on the card at Tampa bay downs

IRISH-bred Hawskmoor took the Grade 3 Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on February 9th. Owned by Lael Stable, trained by Arnaud Delacour and ridden by Javier Castellano, Hawksmoor shook off a four-month layoff to earn the half-length win. Well Defined caused an upset the Grade 3 Sam Davis on the same card. The Stonehedge homebred led every step to turn back Kentucky Wildcat and So Alive. Trained by Kathleen O’Connell, the son of With Distinction took charge early and toyed with several high-profile three-year-olds.