COMPETITIONOFIDEAS dominated a group of three-year-old fillies to win the $300,000 Grade 1 American Oaks last Saturday at Santa Anita Park.

The Chad Brown-trained Speightstown filly trailed in the eight-horse field through much of the race and began to wind up midway through the turn for home, but still had plenty of work to do.

Racing four-wide to get in the clear on the outside, Competitionofideas and jockey Joel Rosario had plenty in the tank, and surged by the leaders K P Pergoliscious and Amandine to win by two and three-quarter lengths.

The filly competed a fabulous year for Justify’s breeder John Gunther – she was bred by him along with Tony Chedraoui, and Eurowest Bloodstock Services

“She broke well, we saved ground, and we took one shot,” Rosario said. “I thought we would be closer, but everybody wanted their spot, so I just let her settle.”

Competitionofideas was last at the quarter pole but still blew by the field in the stretch to finish the distance in 1m 59.77sec.

K P Pergoliscious, the longest shot at 90/1, just held off her Jeff Mullins-trained stablemate Amandine (who was running off just two days after her win in the Lady of Shamrock Stakes) to take second.

“It’s great to finish out the year like this,” said Jose Hernandez, Brown’s assistant on the scene at Santa Anita.

“This filly had settled in real good here at Santa Anita (after doing most of her training for the race at Palm Meadows Training Center), and she was doing good coming into this race. She finished up really strong today.”

Pegasus field comes together

ACCELERATE, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, continued his prep for the $9 million Pegasus World Cup on January 26th with a workout at Santa Anita on Saturday, going five furlongs in just over 1m 00.40 secs.

Trainer John Sadler was pleased with the colt’s effort and afterwards he told Daily Racing Form: “He’s not going into the race a used-up horse, he’s not a tired horse. The spacing is perfect.”

Accelerate will continue at Santa Anita before heading to Gulfstream early in the week of the Pegasus.

Breeders’ Cup runner-up Gunnevera is also on target for the Pegasus, which is limited to 12 starters and costs $500,000 to enter.

DETTORI

Frankie Dettori is reported to be in line to partner Mexico’s undefeated Triple Crown winner Kukulkan, last seen winning the $300,000 Clasico del Caribe early last month at Gulfstream Park.

The son of Point Determined is undefeated in 14 races and was also a champion two-year-old in his native land.

Gulfstream officials reported that Spanish analyst and announcer Pedro Casella confirmed with trainer Fausto Gutierrez that Dettori will ride.

Dettori is also expected to have a mount in the $7 million Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, the richest turf race in North America.