OXO Equine’s Cambier Parc plundered Saturday’s $302,808 Del Mar Oaks (G1), filling a rare lacuna on trainer Chad Brown’s turf resume and paying a handsome compliment to division leader Concrete Rose.
The 6-5 favorite in light of her third to that rival in the Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1) last out, Cambier Parc also boasted a victory over stablemate Newspaperofrecord in the June 6 Wonder Again (G3). That was the strongest piece of form here, and the blueblood lived up to it.
Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez was happy to save ground from her rail post in the initial stages, nestling her about midpack in the strung-out field as Raymundos Secret carved out splits of :23.31 and :46.89 on the firm course. Down the backstretch, however, Velazquez seized the opportunity to get out of a potential inside trap and steered her into the clear.
Raymundos Secret was besieged turning for home, first by stalkers Keeper Ofthe Stars and Dogtag, but the bigger dangers were deploying from off the pace. Recent British repatriate Hidden Message was quickening well, outkicking Mucho Unusual, only to be inhaled by the favorite.
Cambier Parc had taken a few strides to gain momentum after circling wide into the stretch. Once she found top gear, the race was over. The $1.25 million Keeneland September yearling purchase looked like the proverbial million dollars when rocketing by to win handily, 1 1/4 lengths clear, in 1:46.75. That’s not far off the 1 1/8-mile stakes record of 1:46.26 established by Amorama (2004).
“It sure is nice to ride one like this,” Velazquez said. “When you ask for it, they give it to you. We were in a good spot the first time by the wire and comfortable. When we went past the three-quarters, I shifted her out to where she was comfortable. We’d already saved enough ground and I wanted to get her going. She took care of it from there.”
Hidden Message saved second by a half-length from the flying Lady Prancealot. Keeper Ofthestars fared best of the pace factors in fourth. Hard Legacy closed from far back to snatch fifth, just missing fourth. Next came Maxim Rate, Mucho Unusual, Raymundos Secret, Wildlife, Dogtag, Apache Princess, Out of Balance, and Sold It. Strike at Dawn was a vet scratch.
Cambier Parc was kicking off a Grade 1 double for sire Medaglia d’Oro, whose son Higher Power earned a career breakthrough in the Pacific Classic (G1). Cambier Parc’s first stakes win came in the March 2 Herecomesthebride (G3) at Gulfstream Park. The bay was subsequently fourth in the Edgewood (G3) to Concrete Rose and Newspaperofrecord, but gained revenge on the hard-pulling latter in the Wonder Again. Cambier Parc’s scorecard reads 7-4-0-1, $497,460.
A daughter of Canadian Horse of the Year Sealy Hill, Cambier Parc is a half-sister to Canadian champion Hillaby and Grade 3 winners Belle Hill and Gale Force.
Worth noting for the three-year-old fillies’ division on dirt, Gary and Mary West’s homebred Fighting Mad dominated her two-turn debut in the $100,702 Torrey Pines (G3). The Bob Baffert pupil justified 2-1 favoritism in front-running fashion, drawing off by eight lengths with Joe Talamo. The final time for the mile was a tepid 1:38.61, and market rival Classic Fit threw in a clunker in last, but Fighting Mad stamped herself as one on the rise.
“We were hoping she could get a mile,” Baffert said. “I’ve been taking my time with her, but the way she’s been working and the way she’s showed she loved this track, we were hoping it would turn out the way it did.”
By New Year’s Day – the same sire as the Wests’ Maximum Security – Fighting Mad has earned $168,008 from a 5-3-1-0 line.
