Son of Bucchero Also Earns $25,000 FTBOA Florida-bred Win Bonus
BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Ironhorse Racing Stable LLC and Harlow Stables LLC’s Mattingly earned his first career stakes victory in convincing fashion Saturday as the Florida-bred son of Pleasant Acres Stallions’ Bucchero won the $65,000 Hollywood Beach by a length-and-three-quarters at Gulfstream Park. In defeating four other 2-year-olds over five furlongs on the Gulfstream Park synthetic course, Mattingly also earned a $25,000 Florida-bred win bonus presented by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
Sent to the post as the 3-2 favorite, Mattingly and jockey Samy Camacho broke best of all from post three but Florida-bred Esperon sprinted to a clear lead from the rail and quickly put three lengths on Mattingly and 9-5 second choice Prevent, who were together in second. Esperon blazed the first quarter-mile in :21.14 before Mattingly began to close in from the two path around the far turn.
Esperon held a length lead out of the turn but Mattingly had him in his sights as Okiro also began to threaten on the outside. Mattingly took over from between those two inside the final furlong and continued to extend his lead to wire to finish the Hollywood Beach in :56.67. Okiro was second, a length ahead of Esperon in third. Prevent and El Principito were fourth and fifth respectively. Hermoso Hombre and Roar Ready were scratched.
Mattingly paid $5 to win.
It was the second career win from four starts for Mattingly, who earned his first stakes victory in three tries. He debuted in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile on the Gulfstream Park turf in May and finished second to No Nay Mets (Ire), who has since won the $112,000 Tyro at Monmouth Park and the $131,000 Exacta Systems Rosie’s at Colonial Downs.
Mattingly then won a maiden special weight by nearly six lengths on the Gulfstream Park synthetic in June then before finishing second to Pipit in the CA$126,000 Victoria going five-and-a-half furlongs on synthetic main track at Woodbine on July 16.
“I learned a lot in that Woodbine race,” trainer Joe Orseno said. “When it scratched down to four horses, we thought, ‘Just go. He’s fast.’ He got stuck in a speed duel to set it up for the horse coming off of it. I said, ‘That’s not going to happen again. I know the ‘one’ is a very fast horse. I used to train his brother. I said, ‘We’ve got to let the ‘one’ and ‘three’ go.’ That was the plan we took, and it worked.”
Orseno said Mattingly will race on more time this year.
“We think he’s a very talented 2-year-old with a bright future.”
The $64,000 payday for winning the Hollywood Beach boosted Mattingly’s career earnings to $147,028.
Bred in Florida by Lance Colwell of Williston, Fla., Mattingly is out of Grand Slam mare Battingstar, who has produced six winners from six foals with Mattingly her first stakes-winner.
Ironhorse Racing Stable purchased Mattingly for $70,000 out of the Two Oaks Equine consignment earlier this year at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale.
