Eagleton’s Latest Success Comes in the La Jolla

For a gelding who has now won half of his 14 starts, Eagleton doesn’t always get respect at the betting windows.

He has won as the favorite three times against suspect opposition in Arizona, but has been largely ignored in his four wins in California.

The son of Majestic Light was nearly 15-1 when he broke his maiden here last year, was 8-1 when he took the Gateway To Glory at Fairplex Park last Sept. 24 and was 13-1 when winning the Will Rogers Handicap on May 9 at Hollywood Park.

For his latest success, Eagleton rewarded his supporters a healthy $15.40, beating In Frank’s Honor and seven other 3-year-olds in the $150,000 La Jolla Handicap on Sunday.

Owned by Dennis Weir and trained by Kevin Lewis, who quietly has won with about 25% of his starters this year, Eagleton won for the sixth time with jockey Isaias Enriquez.

Making his first start since finishing second in the Cinema Handicap on June 5, the Virginia-bred had trained well lately and had run well fresh before.

Reserved well off the lead early on a course catering to closers, he rallied wide, got the lead in midstretch and staved off the runner-up, scoring by a head in 1:41 4/5 for the 1 1/16 miles.

The victory was the biggest of Enriquez’s career and the Tijuana-born rider, who will turn 26 on Sept. 6, had some special fans in the grandstand.

“I’m so happy because I got to do this in front of my family,” he said. “They came up from Tijuana and it’s the first time they’ve come to see me ride.

“[Lewis] told me, ‘You know the horse better than I do; go out and have some fun.’ ”

Zanetti, a 16-1 shot, was third, 1 1/4 lengths behind In Frank’s Honor, then came Mula Gula, No Night, Fighting Falcon, Domination, the lukewarm 7-2 favorite, Perugino Bay and Cliquot.

Horse Racing Notes

Dixie Union, the winner of the Hollywood Juvenile Championship and unbeaten in two starts, tops a field of six 2-year-olds entered in Wednesday’s $150,000 Best Pal Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs. Others in the field, which is a prep for the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 8, are Magical Dragon, Hugh Hefner, Caller One, Captain Steve and Exchange Rate. . . . A power failure meant that track announcer Trevor Denman couldn’t be heard over the public address system for four of the nine races on Sunday. Denman could be heard on the track monitors. . . . Summer Vision, a 3-year-old maiden colt trained by Steve Young, had to be euthanized Sunday morning after he crashed through the rail at the head of the stretch. Damage to the rail caused the track to be closed for the rest of the morning.