If Bing Crosby had been around to see champion sprinter Amazombie line up in
the race run in his honor Sunday at Del Mar, he might have crooned a few bars of
“Just One More Chance.” Only third in last year’s running of the Grade 1 dash,
the Bill Spawr charge took a different path this time, and made the most of his
second chance in the $300,000 renewal of the
Bing
Crosby. Amazombie capitalized on a speed duel that softened up even-money
favorite The Factor, and ran him down late to win going away by 1 1/4 lengths.
Freshened since his runner-up effort to Shackleford in the Grade 2 Churchill
Downs Stakes on Kentucky Derby Day, Amazombie was reportedly stronger than he
had been for the 2011 Bing Crosby, and that hypothesis was verified. The 9-5
second choice broke like a shot from the rail with regular rider Mike Smith, but
was soon content to settle into third, and enjoy the pace scenario unfolding
before him.
Comma to the Top hustled to the front, The Factor went right after to press
him, and the two speedsters hooked up through testing fractions of :22 1/5 and
:44 2/5 on the Polytrack. The Factor was the stronger of the pair as they
straightened down for the drive, but he was making hard work of grinding his way
to the fore through five furlongs in :56 2/5.
Amazombie, on the other hand, was now in his element. Producing his trademark
closing kick, the Eclipse Award winner had too much firepower for the laboring
The Factor. Amazombie strode away to finish six furlongs in 1:08 3/5 and
returned $5.80, $2.60 and $2.10.
“He’s just a professional racehorse,” Smith summed up. “He’s bigger,
stronger, thicker this year. He goes right on about it.
“Bill has done a terrific job with him. He looks so good. And Bill thinks
he’s even better this year. I know that’s a scary thought, but I think he’s
right.
“He’ll run wherever you put him,” Smith continued. “If he runs seven-eighths,
that’s no problem. It takes a really good horse to beat him. That horse that did
(Shackleford in the Churchill Downs Stakes going seven furlongs) is maybe the
best miler in the country. It takes that kind of horse to beat him at that
distance. He (Amazombie) is just something special.”
“We feel, training him, that he’s got more muscle to him than he’s ever had,”
said Spawr, who co-owns Amazombie with Thomas C. Sanford. “It’s a good feeling
to beat a good field like this. It’s a good feeling to beat The Factor.”
Spawr described what was different this year from last.
“We ran him in the Triple Bend (Grade 1 on July 2, 2011) and he lost some
weight, then we ran him back in the Crosby as a prep (for later races),” Spawr
said of his previous campaign. “We were serious about the race then, but he
wasn’t as fit as he was today, or as fresh as he was today.
“He ran well today, because he’s sharp, but Mike (Smith) said he feels
different on synthetic and he prefers dirt.
“It surprised me how easily he won. But being around him every day, he just
is better than ever.”
The Factor barely salvaged runner-up honors by a head from the late-running
Capital Account. Comma to the Top was a weary fourth, and Don Tito rounded out
the compact field of five.
Martin Garcia, rider of The Factor, suggested that his mount is better over
seven furlongs than six.
“His best distance is seven-eighths,” Garcia said. “You don’t have to push on
him so hard then, and he can run better. That other horse (Comma to the Top)
bothered him. He (Comma to the Top) was going in and out and brushed with my
horse. My horse ran good, just not good enough.”
With this third Grade 1 title, and seventh overall stakes score to his
credit, Amazombie’s scorecard stands at 27-12-5-6, $1,905,378. The
California-bred son of Northern Afleet was a progressive performer last season.
Beginning 2011 with a victory in his stakes debut in the Sunshine Millions
Sprint, he ended it with a crescendo in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint to clinch the
divisional Eclipse Award. At various points in between, Amazombie captured the
Grade 1 Ancient Title, Grade 2 Potrero Grande and Tiznow, and crossed the wire
first in the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap, only to be demoted to third for
interference. He also just missed in the grassy Sensational Star Handicap and
finished third in the Triple Bend prior to his third in the Bing Crosby.
Amazombie kicked off 2012 with a third to The Factor in the Grade 2 San
Carlos over seven furlongs on February 25, but rebounded to defend his title
successfully in the slightly shorter Potrero Grande over 6 1/2 furlongs April 7.
The six-year-old showed more early speed than usual in the May 5 Churchill
Downs, and was just outdueled by the tough Shackleford, again at a seven-furlong
trip that might be a tad beyond his best.
Spawr indicated that, from this point, he will follow the same itinerary that
worked so well one year ago. Amazombie will aim for a repeat in the race
formerly known as the Ancient Title (now the Santa Anita Sprint Championship) on
October 6, followed by another title defense in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, to be
held on his own home circuit at Santa Anita.
The Santa Anita Sprint Championship is a “Win and You’re In” race as part of
the Breeders’ Cup Challenge program, but the Bing Crosby isn’t.
“This race (Crosby) should be a ‘Win and You’re In’ — I don’t understand
it,” Spawr noted.
Bred by Gregg Anderson, Amazombie RNA’d for $32,000 as a Barretts January
two-year-old. He was produced by the winning In Excess mare Wilshe Amaze, who is
a half-sister to multiple stakes victor Flom’s Prospector.
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