Game On Dude toys with San Antonio field

Game On Dude turned the San Antonio into a paid workout (Benoit Photos)

Game On Dude toyed with his competition in Sunday’s Grade 2, $196,000
San
Antonio at Santa Anita for his ninth stakes win.

The Bob Baffert trainee broke well and posted an opening quarter in :23 1/5.
He was challenged on the outside by Basmati, who stuck a head in front at
the half-mile pole which was run in :46 3/5. Game On Dude was just biding his
time as he took back over the lead by the time they reached the the
three-quarter pole and started to shake loose. The six-year-old gelding drew
clear in the stretch under a hand ride from jockey Mike Smith to post a 6
1/2-length victory.

“You know I got pressured, even more so than if it was a full field, believe
it or not,” Smith said. “In these short fields people make you do things because
it’s more of a match race. He has a high, high cruising speed and you just let
him get into his rhythm whether that’s up front or off the lead. I let him do
his thing today and he ran brilliant to be honest. He stood up over on the turn,
took one breath and turned around like it was nothing. They were running quick,
but that’s just him.”

Game On Dude will now try for a second win in the Big ‘Cap (Benoit Photos)

“He grabbed himself a little bit on the ankle coming away from there, but it
looked pretty superficial,” Baffert said “The horse runs well fresh. I really
didn’t want to run that fast early. I wanted him to cruise around there. I
wanted a Flashback kind of a win (referring to Flashback’s easy win in
Saturday’s Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes). We’ll see how it takes its toll on
him, but he ran a good race.

“I knew that other horse (Basmati) was probably going to try him a ways. They’re trying to win…but Game On Dude, he likes that. He’s
competitive.

Game On Dude recorded his first stakes win in the Grade 3 Lone Star Derby in
2010, but people began to take notice when he captured the Grade 1 Santa Anita
Handicap in the spring of 2011. He went on to place in the Grade 3 Charles Town
Classic and Grade 3 Lone Star Park Handicap before a nose second in the Grade 1
Hollywood Gold Cup. Following his half-length score in the Grade 1 Goodwood,
Game On Dude closed out the year with a runner-up effort in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

He opened 2012 with a convincing 5 1/2-length tally in the San
Antonio last February, but nothing went right for him when shipped overseas
for the Group 1 Dubai World Cup in late March. Game On Dude struggled over the
synthetic Tapeta track and finished 12th, but rebounded on his return to the
states with a 7 1/4-length tally in the Grade 2 Californian and a 1 1/2-length
score in the the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Caught in the final yards in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic next
out, Game On Dude cemented Breeders’ Cup Classic favoritism with a 3 1/4-length
tour de force in the Awesome Again (formerly Goodwood), but in
the Classic itself he failed to make the lead and retreated to seventh, 15
lengths behind Fort Larned.