Sugar Shake Aims For 4th Graded Stakes Win At Bayakoa in Hollywood Park
Sugar Shake, winner of the Turnback the Alarm Handicap, seeks for her fourth graded stakes victory of the year in the 1 1/16-mile $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap (gr. II) for fillies and mares on December 1 at Hollywood Park.
Trained by Bobby Frankel, the 4-year-old daughter of Awesome Again, Sugar Shake, began her stakes campaign by winning the El Encino (gr. II) and Santa Maria Handicap (gr. I) at Santa Anita. In her most recent start, she raced a two-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile Turnback the Alarm Handicap (gr. III) at New York’s Aqueduct on November 4.
Bobby Frankel, who saddled 1983 Bayakoa winner Sweet Diane, is aiming for his second Bayakoa win this Saturday. “Ginger Punch may be a little better, but Sugar Shake is a very good horse in her own right,” Frankel said while favorably comparing Sugar Shake to his 2007 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner.
Sugar Shake will be joined by six other rivals which includes includes three European contenders and multiple graded stakes winner Tough Tiz’s Sis.
While Sugar Shake has never tried Cushion Track, the 3-year-old daughter of Tiznow, Tough Tiz’s Sis, ran one of her best races on the Cushion Track earlier this year, taking the Hollywood Breeders’ Cup Oaks (gr. II) by 3 1/2 lengths. In fact, both of her graded stakes scores have come over Cushion Track. On October 7 she won the Lady’s Secret (gr. I) at Santa Anita, getting up by a nose over Hystericalady.
Trained by Bob Baffert, Tough Tiz’s Sis will be ridden for the first time by Garret Gomez. She is coming off a seventh-place finish in the October 27 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Like many who did not fare well that day, the effort can be excused because of the extremely sloppy conditions at Monmouth Park.
On this Saturday’s Bayakoa Handicap, the entire field lines up as follows from the rail out: Lavender Sky with Alex Solis; Sugar Shake with Rafael Bejarano; Sohgol with Joseph Talamo; Romance Is Diane with Michael Baze; Tough Tiz’s Sis with Garrett Gomez; Fonce De with Tyler Baze; and Grain of Truth with Corey Nakatani.
Lavender Sky finished second in the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Stakes on November 10.
Irish-bred Sohlgol has raced mainly in California for the past two years, but has placed in only one of five graded stakes starts and has not won in 2007.
Romance Is Diane, California-bred daughter of In Excess, is the richest filly in the field with earnings of $507,660 for Senji Nishimura. Winner of the Cal Cup Juvenile Fillies and the Hollywood Starlet (gr. I) in 2006, the Mike Mitchell trainee enters the Bayakoa following a 6 1/4-length victory in the Cal Cup Matron Handicap on November 3.
French-bred Fonce De makes her second U.S. start after wining three of 15 starts overseas, and Great Britain-bred Grain of Truth aims for her second straight victory following an allowance victory on Keeneland‘s synthetic surface.
"Sugar Shake Aims For 4th Graded Stakes Win At Bayakoa in Hollywood Park" was posted on 29 November 2007 10:55 PM under Horse Racing News, Horses, Stakes Races, Trainers
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