Points Offthebench makes it four straight in Santa Anita Sprint Championship

Points Offthebench makes it four straight in Santa Anita

Sprint Championship

The early exploits took a toll on the front-runner, who started to shorten

stride after straightening for home, and Points Offthebench was in position to

pounce. He overhauled the pacesetter with a sixteenth of a mile remaining and

quickly kicked clear, but Goldencents was charging late on the outside.

Points Offthebench had enough in reserve to save the win, completing six

furlongs in 1:08 on the fast track, and paid $11.20 to win as the 9-2 third

choice among seven rivals.

"He's very talented," Smith said. "Maldonado (on Distinctiv Passion) looked

like he was getting away from us and I wanted to try and time it with this horse

because if you hit the front too soon, he pulls up a little. Then I looked up

and he was going a whole lot easier than he was supposed to be.

"He has some turn of foot, and I hit the front too soon, but he still held

on. He pulled up nice and happy, well within himself. He's a very talented

horse."

Yakteen echoed the same sentiments.

"The horse is quirky," the trainer said. "I don't want him to hit the lead

too soon, because he'll wait on horses. I think Rafael (Bejarano, who rode

Goldencents) is very well aware of that and he came wide with Goldencents, who

was coming late, but we had inherited the lead."

The California-bred son of Benchmark has now earned $514,940 from a 8-6-1-1

lifetime mark. The Santa Anita Sprint Championship is a "Win & You're In" event

for the Breeders' Cup Sprint and Yakteen is looking forward to the opportunity.

"Yes (we're going on to the Breeders' Cup Sprint)," Yakteen said. "This is my

first Grade 1 win at Santa Anita and only the second in my career (first was the

Bing Crosby). They're not too hard to count.

"The horse is a push-button (type). Horses like that, they make you look

good. I would say, yeah, this is the biggest win of my career. This was a tough,

tough race. This is special."

Goldencents, the 7-5 favorite, has now finished second in three consecutive

sprints (Bing Crosby and August 25 Pat O'Brien), but his connections are

planning on stretching him back out to two turns for the Breeders' Cup Dirt

Mile.

"We were very pleased with what (Goldencents) did today. It looks like,

according to our owners, that we aren't going to stay sprinting," said Leandro

Mora, assistant to Doug O'Neill. "We thought we could sprint but the talk is

that we are going to keep him at a mile.

"It doesn't seem like he is a sprinter. We tried, but he is trying to tell us

that he is not. He can run everywhere we put him, but he's not a sprinter. Even

Rafael (Bejarano) said, 'please, let's go longer.' He's got a great kick. The

Breeders' Cup Mile is next, definitely."

Goldencents wound up 2 1/2 lengths better than Distinctiv Passion, who

finished another 4 1/2 lengths ahead of Gonna Fly Now in fourth. Roman Threat

and Centralinteligence came next under the wire, and it was another 14

1/2-length gap back to the trailer, 2012 champion sprinter Trinniberg, who came

up completely flat in his first start at Santa Anita since capturing last year's

Breeders' Cup Sprint. Declassify was scratched.

Points Offthebench opened his racing career in 2011, racing twice at Del Mar

as a juvenile in California-bred maidens. He finished third in his premiere and

broke through promptly next out, but was sidelined for six months. Points

Offthebench picked up right where he left off by capturing his sophomore bow

versus state-breds at Santa Anita in February 2012, only to be shelved for the

remainder of the season.

In his comeback from a nearly year-long absence on February 2, Points

Offthebench just missed by a half-length in an open-company allowance at Santa

Anita. He moved forward off that tightener to win a similar event at the same

venue April 6, followed up with a second-level allowance score at Hollywood, and

prevailed by a head over Goldencents when making his first stakes attempt in the

six-furlong Bing Crosby. The dark bay sprinted has never competed at distances

past 6 1/2 furlongs.

Bred by Gary Rocks, Points Offthebench is a full brother to Grade 3 winner

Bench Points. Both are by Benchmark and out of the unraced Free House mare Mo

Chuisle, herself a half-sister to Grade 2-placed Visible Slew. Points

Offthebench's second dam is Grade 3 victress Visible Gold, and his fourth dam is

Grade 1 star Alma North. He hails from the same female line as current sophomore

Iotapa, the winner of this year's Railbird who has also placed in the Santa

Anita Oaks, Hollywood Oaks and most recently the San Clemente on the Del Mar

turf.

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