Horse Racing Results: Tizfiz Wins San Gorgonio Handicap at Santa Anita Park

Posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Tizfiz provided jockey Agapito Delgadillo and race horse trainer Rafael DeLeon with their most prestigious career victories Sunday, January 4, in Santa Anita Park‘s 40th running of the $150,000 San Gorgonio Handicap.

Online Horse BettingAt the age of 42, jockey Agapito Delgadillo guided the 5-year-old Tiznow mare Tizfiz through moderate fractions during the 1 1/8-mile turf course while preserving just enough to repel the closing bid of 2-1 second choice Marzelline by a nose at odds of 9-1.

The 2009 San Gorgonio Handicap final time of 1:49.62 followed splits that included a :50.27 half mile and six-furlong clocking of 1:14.54.

Marzelline, with jockey Victor Espinoza in the irons, closed steadily on the outside to narrowly miss while finishing 1/2 length ahead of third-place Solar Miss, ridden by jockey Garrett Gomez, in the field of 8. Valbenny, the 2-1 favorite with jockey Alex Solis aboard, checked in a well-beaten fourth.

“Rafael (DeLeon) told me to go to the front, and ‘to go as slow as you can,’ and that’s what happened,” jockey Agapito Delgadillo said. “At the top of the stretch, I felt like I had a lot of horse, but I didn’t know about the closers. I knew they’d be coming, and I was hoping my filly would keep going. I won on her in Phoenix (Queen O’ Green Handicap at Turf Paradise on December 6), and I was looking forward to riding her here, but I didn’t know how she was going to fit with these horses.”

Perfectly, it turned out, in a field that lacked any other dedicated speed type.  “I just told Agapito, ‘No speed, let’s go, Agapito,’” noted race horse trainer Rafael DeLeon.

Tizfiz rewarded her backers with payoffs of $21, $9.80 and $7. Marzelline paid $3.40 and $3 while the show price on Solar Miss was $4.

“This is my biggest win,” said DeLeon, a native of Guatemala who has been training on his own for four years after being employed by the late Doug Peterson, Randy Bradshaw and D. Wayne Lukas. “I won some $75,000 races, but never a graded stakes.”

Delgadillo’s only previous graded stakes victory was achieved aboard Jungle Prince in the Hollywood Turf Express (G3) at Hollywood Park in 2006. His richest win had been gained aboard I’m a Jewel in the $200,000 California Derby in 1997 when the event was ungraded. A native of Mexico, he began riding in the United States in 1988.

SBG Global Racebook“I have 12 horses in training,” race horse trainer Rafael DeLeon reported, “and Tizfiz is the best one. I claimed her (on October 4 during Santa Anita‘s Oak Tree meet) because my owners liked her, and I thought she could run long. I don’t know what’s next.”

Owned by Brian Kahn and the Richard J. O’Neill Trust, Tizfiz earned $90,000 to boost her lifetime total to $233,160 from a record of 5-3-0 in 12 starts. The San Gorgonio was her second stakes victory to accompany the $50,000 event at Turf Paradise.

DeLeon’s first graded stakes win, the San Gorgonio Handicap, is a race that Hall of Fame race horse trainer Bobby Frankel had taken 7 of the past 13 years and was favored to win again with fourth-place Valbenny.

Belmont Cat came in fifth in Santa Anita’s San Gorgonio Handicap followed by Meribel, Green Lyons and High Heel Sneakers.

Horse racing news edited from www.santaanita.com.

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"Horse Racing Results: Tizfiz Wins San Gorgonio Handicap at Santa Anita Park" was posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2009 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Horse Racing Industry, Horses, Race Tracks News, Results & Payouts, Santa Anita Track, Stakes Races, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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