Aggie engineers first stakes score in Native Diver

Aggie Engineer wired the Native Diver to earn his first stakes victory (Benoit Photos) Ward and Roberta Williford’s homebred AGGIE ENGINEER (E Dubai) took command of Saturday’s $100,000 Native Diver S. (G3) at Hollywood Park not long after the start and proceeded to lead all the way home under jockey Joe Talamo. The Paddy Gallagher trainee held off a game run from Spurrier (Dixieland Band) to score by 1 3/4 lengths on the wire, finishing up nine Cushion Track furlongs in 1:51 to add a first stakes victory to his resume. “He had a magnificent trip,” Talamo said. “Obviously on paper he was the speed of the race. He’s such a great horse to ride and I tried to be a good pilot. I just let him do his own thing. He was just cruising around there and when I asked him to go, he did. Usually when there’s no speed, somebody always goes. Fortunately it worked out well today. He got the job done real nice. It was fun.” Aggie Engineer was tracked for the opening six furlongs by Philatelist (Rahy), who drafted just outside of the leader through splits of :25 2/5, :50 2/5 and 1:15 2/5. Dakota Phone (Zavata) and Achak (Ire) (Invincible Spirit) kept each other company just in behind, while Spurrier and Romp (Arg) (Incurable Optimist) traded places on the backstretch. Aggie Engineer opened up a three-length lead in the stretch while posting a mile in 1:39 1/5 and held a comfortable margin on the line as Spurrier did his best but ultimately came up short in giving trainer Bob Baffert his 2,000th career win.

The second favorite at 3-1, Aggie Engineer paid $8, $4.60 and $3.20 while
keying the $1 exotics worth $29 (exacta) and $110.70 (trifecta). Spurrier, the
fifth pick at 8-1, gave back $8.20 and $5.20 for holding a late-running Soul Candy (Birdonthewire)
by a half-length on the wire. Soul Candy, also trained by Gallagher, returned
$3.40 as the 4-1 third choice, and it was another half-length back to 8-5
favorite Dakota Phone, who entered this race off an upset win in the Breeders’
Cup Dirt Mile (G1). That runner ended the 4-7-3-5 superfecta that totaled
$145.60 for a $1 ticket. Achak, Romp and Philatelist rounded out the order under
the wire.

“They were going too slow for him,” said Joel Rosario, who had piloting
duties aboard Dakota Phone. “He wanted to be closer today because they were
going so slow. With a slow pace like that, they continue to keep running on the
lead. He’s a nice little horse and he did OK.”

The Kentucky-bred Aggie Engineer captured his start prior to this one, taking
an allowance/optional claimer by 2 1/4 lengths during the Oak Tree meet at
Hollywood. He was unplaced in the Windy Sands H. at the Del Mar stand following
a second in the grassy Wickerr S. In his only other tries against stakes
company, the five-year-old gelding ran sixth in the San Marcos S. (G2) to open
2010 and filled that same spot in the Mervyn LeRoy H. (G2) last year. In an
interesting twist, Dakota Phone was third in that edition of the LeRoy.

“It looked too good on paper but it worked out that way. When things look so
obvious, that makes it more scary,” Gallagher said. “The horse ran good, and yes
he did have an easy lead and that’s a big help to a horse like him.

“When I looked up and saw the fractions, I didn’t like Soul Candy’s chances,
but he also ran very, very well. For once, everything went right.”

Aggie Engineer is the first stakes winner out of the Dixieland Band mare
Papalma, who has since produced a pair of full siblings to the Native Diver
winner — the yearling filly Mexican Band and an unnamed weanling colt. Papalma
is herself a half-sister to 1985 Hopeful S. (G1) and 1986 Hutcheson S. (G2)
scorer Papal Power (Miswaki). Another half-sibling to Papalma is the granddam of
Grade 3 vixen Betty’s Wish (Gold Case), multiple stakes king Uncle T Seven
(Freud) and Grade 3 victor Wishful Tomcat (Tactical Cat), who ran third in the
Empire Classic S. in late October.

Aggie Engineer’s third dam, multiple listed winner Gris Vitesse (*Amerigo),
is responsible for Group 3 star and successful sire Silver Hawk (Roberto), who
placed in the 1982 editions of the English (Eng-G1) and Irish Derbys (Ire-G1),
as well as the dam of Wandering Star (Red Ransom), who captured the 1996 E. P.
Taylor S. (Can-G2).