Aaron and Marie Jones’ FOREST GROVE (Forestry) earned his first graded win Saturday in the $150,000
Los Angeles Times H. (G3) at Hollywood Park. The
four-year-old colt stalked the early pace through the first call of :21 3/5 and
took over shortly thereafter as he rode the rail. Ridden by Corey Nakatani, Forest Grove
continued on through splits of :44 and :55 3/5, holding off all on-comers in the
end to win by three parts of a length. The Eoin Harty trainee completed the six-furlong affair in 1:08 2/5.
The winner returned $10.20, $4.40 and $2.60 at 4-1 while leading $1 exotics
of $15.60 (exacta) and $49.30 (trifecta). Areyoutalkintome (Smokester), the near
2-1 favorite, returned home in second to pay $3.60 and $2.40 while Woke Up
Dreamin (Holy Bull) finished another length back to return $2.80 for the show at
3-1. Tsigane (Fr) (Anabaa), Shadow of Illinois (Illinois Storm) and Hombre Rapido
(Falstaff) rounded out the order of finish.
Forest Grove entered the race off a second-place finish in the Count Fleet
Sprint H. (G3). He now holds a record of 15-5-3-0 and $281,130 in earnings. The
homebred was born in Kentucky and is out of Grade 3 winner Charm a
Gendarme (Batonnier). He counts himself as a half-brother to multiple Grade 1
winner Tout Charmant (Slewvescent), a yearling filly by
Pulpit named Positivelycharming and an unnamed 2005 colt by Vindication.