Arlington Futurity : Bet Twice Rallies to Win 4th Straight by 5 Lengths

Bet Twice, the 5-2 favorite in a field of 11, rallied from the middle of the pack on the far turn Monday and coasted to a five-length victory in the $470,700 Arlington-Washington Futurity before a crowd of 19,436 at Arlington Park.

In another stake that helped complete the two-week season that featured Sunday’s Budweiser-Arlington Million, Southjet also came from behind to win by three quarters of a length in the $170,850 Secretariat.

Bet Twice, who has won all four of his lifetime starts, earned $282,420 for Blanche Levy, whose husband is the president of Atlantic City Race Course.

Running the mile in 1:37 1/5, Bet Twice paid $7.60, $4.80 and $3.40 under jockey Craig Perret. Conquistarose, who was seven horses wide going into the stretch, closed strongly for second, paying $7 and $4.40. It was three quarters of a length farther back to Jazzing Around, who paid $3.80.

The rest of the finishing order was Prince Sassafras, Combat Hero, Captain Valid, Orono, Dr. Dalton, Cryptoclearance, Spectacularphantom and Lone Star State.

Captain Valid won the Hollywood Juvenile Championship and came into the Futurity with wins in his only two starts.

Gary Jones, who trains Captain Valid, thought the fast early pace (:44 4/5 for the half-mile) hurt his horse.

“Chris (McCarron) said that the colt broke sharp, but that he had to rush him all the way,” Jones said. “The colt had no chance to relax. Then on the turn, it looked like he might be trapped, so Chris moved him early.

“The horses that were up front early were not there at the end. We wanted to be third or fourth in the beginning without using the horse. Maybe he didn’t like the sandy track here, and the six weeks between races possibly didn’t help him. But I still haven’t lost any faith in him.”

Prince Sassafras, supplemented to the Futurity for $25,000 even though he was a maiden after three starts, held the lead over Captain Valid and Spectacularphantom in a closely bunched run down the backstretch.

Coming out of the turn, Bet Twice, in fifth place earlier, was able to split horses as the leaders began to drop back.

“Two-year-olds don’t usually go through holes,” Perret said. “They’re usually timid, so this was the sign of a good horse. He showed a lot of class today.”

Bet Twice, also a supplementary starter, won his first three starts at Monmouth Park, taking the Sapling Stakes over Faster Than Sound on Aug. 9.

In the Sapling, Perret got off Bet Twice to ride Faster Than Sound, who suffered shin injuries in the race and probably won’t run until next year.

Apparently Perret now has a choice of riding either horse. “I love that spot,” he said. “When a jockey has six or seven horses to choose from, that’s the sign of a man who ain’t gonna be hungry.”

Bet Twice is trained by Jimmy Croll, who quit studying to be a veterinarian more than 50 years ago to become a conditioner. Croll is known as a trainer of speed horses, the best example being the sprinter Mr. Prospector, who raced in the early 1970s.

Eddie Maple, who rode Conquistarose for trainer Woody Stephens, was impressed with his colt’s race.

“I think this colt has a great future,” Maple said. “During the first part of the race, he had a lot of sand hit him in the face. He kind of spit it out at the half-mile pole, and then he finished very game.”

Bet Twice is a son of Sportin’ Life and Golden Dust. Conquistarose, who beat maidens a month ago at Saratoga in his third career start, is the result of a mating between Conquistador Cielo, the first of Stephens’ five straight winners in the Belmont Stakes in 1982, and De La Rose, a stakes winner on both coasts.

Despite Bet Twice’s win, undefeated Gulch, who has been running in New York, is considered the early leader among the nation’s 2-year-olds.

Southjet, ridden by Jose Santos and trained by Angel Penna Jr. for the Dogwood Stable, earned $102,510, running 1 miles on grass in 2:02, which was 1 1/5 seconds slower than Estrapade’s winning time in the Million.

Coming into the race with only one win in 10 starts this year, Southjet paid $13.20, $4.80 and $3.40. Glow, also trained by Stephens, paid $2.80 and $2.40 for finishing 2 1/2 lengths ahead of Tripoli Shores, who returned $4. Clear Choice, winner of the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park and making his first start on grass, ran ninth in the 10-horse field.

Horse Racing Notes

According to trainer Gary Jones, Chris McCarron will ride Turkoman for him in the Marlboro Cup Handicap at Belmont Park on Sept. 13. McCarron, the leading jockey in the country according to purse money, has been riding both Turkoman and Precisionist, who will also run in the Marlboro after winning last Saturday’s Woodward Stakes at Belmont in near-record time. . . . Zoffany, who finished last and came back lame after going off as the second betting choice in Sunday’s Budweiser-Arlington Million, has an injury that isn’t serious, according to trainer John Gosden. “He should be all right to race again,” Gosden said Monday. “He’s not 100% in the behind, but the injury is high enough that there’s no point in taking X-rays. It happened when he got banged around and was turned sideways going into the first turn.” Gosden said that both Zoffany and Alphabatim, whom he saddled to finish 12th in the 14-horse field, will be sent back to the West Coast . . . Teleprompter, besides running into traffic problems in trying to win the Million for the second straight year, also got none the best of it in the gate. He was already anxious while standing in the No. 9 stall, trying to nuzzle Flying Pidgeon, the horse inside him, when the assistant starters brought Zoffany, the wrong horse, into the No. 10 stall. Zoffany belonged in the No. 11 stall and was eventually taken there, but the delay resulted in Teleprompter being flat-footed when the gate opened. Teleprompter finished seventh.