Sleep Easy Wins After Favored One Falls

Sleep Easy, who had a valid excuse when she finished third in her previous start, was a 1 1/4-length winner of the $207,400 Hollywood Oaks on Sunday as trainer Bobby Frankel celebrated his 54th birthday with his sixth stakes victory of the season.

Favored One, the third choice in a five-horse field, was on the lead at the top of the stretch when she broke down. The winner of the Princess Stakes on June 18 broke two bones in her right foreleg and was removed from the track.

Sleep Easy, who was rallying on the outside when Favored One was pulled up by jockey Alex Solis, outdueled Predicted Glory, at 27-1. Bello Cielo, the 7-5 favorite, finished third, 13 lengths back.

Sleep Easy stumbled at the start of the Princess and finished third, four lengths behind Favored One. Giving Corey Nakatani his third victory of the day, Sleep Easy paid $5.20 as the second choice and earned $122,400 for Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms. The daughter of Seattle Slew and Dokki, a Northern Dancer mare, was bred by Juddmonte and ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:50 1/5, slowest time for the Oaks since Spearfish won in 1966.

“I was a little concerned,” Frankel said, “because [Sleep Easy] had a bit of a skin condition, but I guess it didn’t bother her.”

Sleep Easy now has three victories and a third in five starts. Frankel said that she might run in the Del Mar Oaks, a grass race, on Aug. 20.

Favored One was lugging out at the top of the stretch and brushed with Sleep Easy.

“I’m very sad,” Solis said. “She’s such a nice filly. We were going easy. Then at the quarter pole she hit that other filly and re-broke. She started running so hard. It was very sad, because she was trying so hard.”

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Horse Racing Notes

Nakatani also rode the winner of Sunday’s other stakes race as Laguna Seca outfinished favored Denim Yenem by one length in the $71,600 Arbor Vitae. It was the first victory for Laguna Seca since November. . . . Regal Discovery, beaten by seven lengths in the Plate Trial and a colt with only one victory against maidens in eight starts, outran All Firmed Up in the stretch to win the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine in Toronto. Regal Discovery paid $31.80 for $2 at Hollywood Park. . . . Corey Black and Matt Garcia were fined $100 apiece for a scuffle in the jockeys’ room after Friday night’s ninth race. . . . Laffit Pincay will ride Dazzling Falls in the Swaps on July 23.