THE AGELESS CATTAIL COVE DELIVERS BIG EFFORT IN FIRST DOWN DASH HANDICAP
In a field of 10 top runners, it was a pair of 7-year-old standouts battling it out down the straightaway in the $30,000 First Down Dash Handicap on Sunday at Los Alamitos. At the wire, it was the ageless Cattail Cove, in his 51st career start, who outdueled Grade 1 winner You Can Run to win the 400-yard dash by a neck.
Owned by Link Newcomb, Cattail Cove was bumped early on but the veteran of many duels shook it off like a pro, dug in and got the job done once again to score the ninth victory of his career. Now a five-time stakes winner at Los Alamitos, the gelding by Favorite Cartel earned $16,500 for his effort to his career earnings to $734,870. Ridden by Martin Arriaga for trainer Juan Aleman, Cattail Cove covered the distance in :20.070.
“Even in horses, age is just a number,” said Newcomb with a smile. “He’ll keep running as long as he wants to. It’s up to him. It showed tonight that at 400 yards he still has it in him to come from behind and win. You can’t ask for more from a horse than that.”
Starting in 2019, Cattail Cove was third in the Governor’s Cup Futurity and second in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity. The Steve Burns-bred runner has been racing at the top level ever since, racing in 22 additional graded stakes races while competing in a total of 38 stakes races in his career. In his 51 starts, only three of those outings have been in anything other than a stakes race or a stakes trial race. The 2022 winner of the Moonist Award, Cattail Cove has finished third or better in 33 of his 51 career starts.
“It’s hard for me to put into words what he means to me,” Newcomb added. “The joy I’ve had over the last five years watching him run is unbelievable. It’s something that you experience just once and that’s it.”
Steve Burns’ homebred You Can Run was a game second in this race – adding another quality effort to his strong 2024 campaign. The Favorite Cartel gelding won four races and finished second twice from nine starts this year. The winner of the Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap in 2024, the 10-time winner has finished in the money in 22 of 33 career starts. Ridden by Ruben Lozano for trainer Mike Casselman, he earned $6,750 for his second-place finish here to take his career earnings to $265,961.
Straight And True, owned by The Quarter Company and bred by Keith Craigmyle and Pual Lewis, finished third. Sergio Morfin saddled Straight And True, who was ridden by Ricardo Ramirez. Ima Sixy Man, Up For Everything, Space Flight, Price Fixer, Jess Being A Friend, Tres Toledo, and Always A Chance completed the field.
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