Becerra Inherits the Win

When trainer Gary Jones took early retirement in April, his longtime assistant, Rafael Becerra, was left with seven horses--a small part of the Jones stable--and no blueprint for the future.

On his own for the first time, Becerra has struggled trying to build a stable. He began under Jones as a teenager, and was part of the operation for 25 years. Now, he has only nine horses, but fortunately one of them is Kingdom Found, a trusty holdover from the Jones days.

“I think he can still be around for a couple of years,” Becerra said after the 6-year-old gelding gave the 42-year-old trainer his first stakes win when he came from behind for a two-length win Sunday in the $109,000 On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park.

On his best days, Kingdom Found has been able to beat such horses as Lit De Justice and Dramatic Gold, and Sunday, racing against California-breds, he finished far ahead of Letthebighossroll, the favorite and 121-pound high weight, and Testimony, the California Cup Sprint winner who was on a three-race win streak.

Second place went to Kern Ridge, 13-1 in a field of seven and making a promising jump from the $60,000 claiming ranks. Kern Ridge, claimed for $40,000 in July by trainer Bill Spawr, looked like a winner at the eighth pole before finishing 4 1/2 lengths ahead of Creston, who ran third. Letthebighossroll, at 17-10, finished fourth and Testimony was fifth.

Kingdom Found, who races for Minnie Dilbeck, has won 10 of 28 races and Sunday’s win, worth $65,400, swelled his earnings to more than $600,000. Ridden by Kent Desormeaux and carrying 118 pounds, he paid $9.20 to win and ran 7 1/2 furlongs in 1:28 2/5.

In last year’s On Trust, which was won by Argolid, Kingdom Found was favored but finished a well-beaten sixth.

“I was worried about how well he would run at this track,” Becerra said, “because he’s never run that well here. But we did all of our work with him at Santa Anita, a track he really likes, and vanned him over [Sunday morning]. We didn’t want to get him here too early, and give him time to start wondering.”