Got Koko Gets Victory for Headley and Solis

Second with Royally Chosen in last year’s La Brea Stakes, trainer Bruce Headley and jockey Alex Solis had a better result with Got Koko in the Grade I race Saturday at Santa Anita.

Got Koko, a 17-1 shot making her graded stakes debut, overhauled Spring Meadow, another outsider at nearly 20-1, in deep stretch and won going away.

At the end of her seven furlongs in 1:22 2/5, the 3-year-old daughter of Signal Tap, who is owned by Headley and restaurateur Paul Leung, had 3 1/4 lengths on the runner-up, who was half a length better than 17-1 shot and pacesetter Erica’s Smile.

A $30,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland, Got Koko, a Texas-bred, won for the fourth time in eight starts.

The victory in the La Brea was her fourth in five tries on the main dirt track and that’s where she will remain.

The next step is the $150,000 El Encino Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 19. A Grade II, the El Encino is the race where Royally Chosen lost a gut-wrenching nose decision to Affluent in a contest chosen the best of the 2001-2002 winter-spring meet.

“Knock on wood, we’ll continue on with her [to the El Encino],” said Headley.

“That’s what our plan is. It’s really quite a thrill to beat a field like that.”

A winner twice in three starts on the dirt at Santa Anita, Got Koko was seventh after a 44 3/5 half-mile, came wide and, with an eighth of a mile to go, there was no doubt she was going to pick up her biggest win.

“Bruce and I have always thought she was a Grade I filly and she proved it today,” said Solis, who escaped serious injury a race later when Most Likely, a 6-year-old gelding trained by Headley, suffered a fatal injury in the stretch of a $62,500 claimer on the grass. Taken to Arcadia Methodist Hospital for precautionary X-rays, Solis was reported to be conscious and alert.

The race favorite, You, who was seeking her sixth Grade I victory since being purchased privately by trainer Bobby Frankel for owner Ed Gann in the summer of 2001, instead turned in a rare stinker. You, the daughter of You and I, engaged Erica’s Smile from the inside for the first half-mile, then tired late to finish fifth at 4-5. It was only the third time in 15 races she has been worse than third.

“I was very disappointed in her performance,” said Patrick Valenzuela, who rode the favorite for the first time. “She was running easy on the backstretch, but when we got to the quarter pole, she gave it up.”

Frankel did win the other stakes on the card Saturday, taking the $76,350 Hill Rise with heavily favored Peace Rules.

With two racing days left in the year, Frankel is $129,418 short of Wayne Lukas’ 14-year-old record of $17,842,358 in stable earnings.