Be Your Best and Skippylongstocking give Ortiz and Joseph a stakes double at Santa Anita
In a photo provided by Benoit Photo,Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking and jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., right, hold off Midnight Mammoth (Armando Ayuso up), inside, to win the Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup Monday, May 26, 2025 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Skippylongstocking, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, center front, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In a photo provided by Benoit Photo, King of Gosford and jockey Flavien Prat, outside, overpower Mi Hermano Ramon (Hector Berrios), middle, and Cabo Spirit (Lanfranco Dettori), inside, to win the Grade I, $300,000 Shoemaker Mile, Monday, May 26, 2025 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In a photo provided by Benoit Photo,Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking and jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., right, hold off Midnight Mammoth (Armando Ayuso up), inside, to win the Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup Monday, May 26, 2025 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Skippylongstocking, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, center front, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP)
ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — Be Your Best led all the way to earn her first Grade 1 victory in the $300,000 Gamely Stakes by 2 3/4 lengths Monday at Santa Anita.
Ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., Be Your Best ran 1 1/8 miles on turf in 1:46.26, the fastest time in the race for fillies and mares since 2017, when Lady Eli won in 1:45.29.
Advertisement
The 5-year-old Ireland-bred mare and Ortiz traveled from the East Coast to compete. It was Florida-based trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.'s first career win at Santa Anita.
About 30 minutes later, Ortiz rode odds-on favorite Skippylongstocking to a three-quarters of a length victory in the $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup for Joseph.
'It was amazing to get that Grade 1, then you don't want to go home with Skippy getting beat,' Joseph told track officials by phone. 'So for him to go out there and win a historic race like the Hollywood Gold Cup was truly special.'
In the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile, Britain-bred King of Gosford and jockey Flavien Prat won.
Advertisement
King of Gosford ran the distance on turf in 1:33.52 and paid $10.80, $4.80 and $3.60. Mi Hermano Ramon was second and Cabo Spirit was third.
In the Gold Cup, Skippylongstocking ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.64 and paid $3.60, $2.60 and $2.10. He increased his career earnings to over $3.6 million with 11 wins in 32 starts.
Midnight Mammoth returned $7.20 and $3.60 and Extensive paid $2.40 to show.
It was Skippylongstocking's eighth graded stakes victory at six different tracks.
'He's just a hard-knocking horse who takes his track with him everywhere he goes,' Joseph said. 'He's a sound horse and he's very strong mentally. We'll be forever grateful for him.'
Advertisement
In the Gamely, Be Your Best paid $6.20, $3.80 and $3.00. Lady Claypoole returned $8.20 and $4.60 and Liguria returned $5 to show.
'She is a very good filly and she showed it,' Joseph said. 'This is really big for us.'
Be Your Best has six wins in 20 career starts and earnings of over $1 million.
___
AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Could a healthy 76ers team make the NBA Finals?
Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill and fantasy basketball analyst Dan Titus discuss if a healthy Philadelphia 76ers could run the east and make the NBA Finals. Hear the full conversation on 'Good Word with Goodwill' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript Make the case, then, for the Philadelphia 76ers to get through the Eastern Conference, to get to the Eastern Conference Finals, and to get through that to the NBA Finals. Make the case. It's health contingent right now. The, the, uh, the dwelling that's all it is, health. Are you sure? I think it's health. It's health at this point because right now you're, you're, their back is against the wall. We don't know truly how healthy Joel and Beat is right now. All we know is that he's supposed to be ready for training camp. I'm taking Darryl Morey and the staff at their word at this point. If he's ready for training camp and Paul George gets re-evaluated and everything looks great at training camp, let's go. You already don't have to worry about the Boston Celtics this year, which was your biggest gatekeepers to ever getting past that to winning that Eastern Conference Finals. You got a playoff with the, with the Indiana Pacers. You get them out of there. The Knicks, they sent you home in seven games and that, that was brutal to the, to the franchise. So now you can get your lick back. Joel and B, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey, solid trio. You got Jerry McCain coming back off of an injury. He was in the running for Rookie of the Year last year before he got hurt. VJ Edgecombe already bringing a lot of energy off the bench that they could definitely use. If everything breaks right, and then as long as they Beat is healthy going into the playoffs, they got it. If that doesn't happen, well, hey, they better hope that they turn it off, um, they gotta turn off the faucet quick because they got a top 4 protected right now that's going to the Oklahoma City Thunder. So if they don't think that they're gonna win this, they need to pull the plug early. And try to just tank again and hopefully they can get a top 4 pick in what's gonna be a really good draft, but I don't know. They could be, they could be screwed. They could be screwed. Yeah, that's the bottom line, but they could be screwed. Um. No, I, I think, look, BJ HO, I think Paul George is, that's a question mark for me. Another surgery, another injury coming into the training camp. And these guys are sneaky old. We only think of LeBron, Steph and KD as old. Everybody else is getting old too, and Paul George is one of those dudes. Close
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Shedeur Sanders impresses during Day 4 of Browns' QB competition
The Cleveland Browns quarterback situation is one of the top NFL storylines with training camps under way. Joe Flacco, Dillion Gabriel, Kenny Pickett, and Shedeur Sanders are all vying for their place on the depth chart to replace the injured DeShaun Watson, who is expected to miss the entire season. Saturday was the final day of practice without pads as head coach Kevin Stefanski is giving the players off on Sunday. Business will pick up next week with their first preseason game on Friday and the speculation about who will be the team's starting quarterback Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals will continue. 'I mean, yeah, you can see them all winning the job, I think, right?' Browns offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said last week. Stefanski said this week that "we'd like to make a decision sooner than later" when it comes to their QB1. Now the question will be who is going to stand out among the four? Sanders making most of training camp reps Much of the attention through the first few days of camp has been on Sanders, their 2025 fifth-round pick. He was a major story on draft night and will have attention on every play he makes on the field. He has not receiver many first-team reps, but that has not hindered his work ethic. "It doesn't really faze me. You gotta understand, we came all the way from an HBCU to a Power 5 [conference team], and now we here, so," Sanders said, via ESPN's Daniel Oyefusi. "At this point you look around, there's nothing that's a challenge, I would say." Sanders did make his mark on Saturday with three touchdowns during the workout, including this one to fellow rookie Luke Floriea. ESPN Cleveland has been tracking the passing stats of all four quarterbacks this week and the other rookie in the rotation, Dillon Gabriel, has thrown the most with 38, compared to 34 by Flacco and Pickett, and 31 from Sanders. Gabriel, meanwhile, had led the way in team drill sets, according to tracking by ESPN's Daniel Oyefusi. Flacco was the Browns' savior in 2023 when he guided them to the playoffs and won Comeback Player of the Year. Now 40, he's back in Cleveland on a one-year, $4 million deal. Stefanski limited the veteran quarterback's work in the spring purposely due to Flacco's familiarity with the offense. 'Oftentimes, the thought in the NFL is like, 'OK, well, your starter gets 70% of the reps, your backup gets 25% of the reps and your third guy gets 5% of the reps, and the job of the backups is to be ready to play with no reps,' Browns GM Andrew Berry told Yahoo Sports' Jori Epstein in June. 'It doesn't have to be that way — especially in the spring, when we have some flexibility because we're not necessarily preparing for games.' Pickett made 42 pass attempts all of last season in a backup role to Jalen Hurts and the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. His first two NFL seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers were mediocre with the 2022 No. 20 overall draft pick throwing for 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Berry said he likes Pickett's mobility and decision making and sees a pathway for improvement — maybe one that has Pickett follow in the footsteps of the likes of Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield and Geno Smith as a reclamation project in a new environment. But the path to redemption for Pickett won't be easy as he attempts to fend off two rookies and a Super Bowl-winning veteran for the Browns' starting job. Pickett did not have his fifth-year option picked up by the Browns, meaning he's in the final year of his rookie deal and has a lot to prove if he doesn't want to turn into an NFL journeyman signal-caller.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Aaron Judge injury update: How severe is the elbow issue?
The New York Yankees could be without superstar slugger Aaron Judge for a bit as he tends to a right elbow injury. Yankees manager Aaron Boone cemented his worry on Saturday with Judge's condition that knocked him out of playing in the team's afternoon tilt at home against the Philadelphia Phillies. 'I'm obviously concerned, but we'll wait and see, read the imaging and hopefully have more [information] later today,' Boone said, per Bill Ladson. Judge apparently sustained the elbow injury in a Tuesday game against the Toronto Blue Jays but played on through the week despite it. However, Ladson noted that Friday's Phillies game showed issues with him throwing the ball after an off-day on Thursday was hoped to ease any lingering pain. As Boone noted, imaging will show the extent of any elbow damage. We'll keep you updated once we hear more. This article originally appeared on For The Win: Aaron Judge injury update: How severe is the elbow issue?
