by Jeff Apel

Mast Track set an uncontested pace and earned his first stakes victory with a 2 1/4-length win in the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup Handicap (G1) on Saturday at Hollywood Park.

Mast Track was sent right to the front of the 1 1/4-mile race by jockey Tyler Baze and opened a 2 1/2-length lead through a half-mile in :48.88. Leading by 1 1/2 lengths in early stretch, the Mizzen Mast colt turned back a late bid from multiple graded stakes winner Go Between and won in 2:01.37 on Hollywood’s all-weather Cushion Track surface.

“This is my first Gold Cup [win]. What an accomplishment,” Baze said. “It’s just a dream being here.”

Mast Track was pressed initially by multiple Grade 1 winner Student Council but opened a one-length lead through a quarter in :24.41 and six furlongs in 1:12.98. The four-year-old colt unleashed a determined late bid while responding to a smooch from Baze, who followed trainer Bobby Frankel’s instructions and put his mount on the lead from the start.

“Bobby told me [Saturday] morning to make sure this horse was on the lead,” Frankel’s assistant Humberto Asciano said. “When they went the first quarter in [:24.41] I had a good feeling, then they went three-quarters and I thought, ‘Man, that’s it.’ ”

Go Between finished two lengths in front of Student Council for second. Multiple Grade 1 winner Heatseeker (Ire) was scratched because of filling in an ankle.

Frankel owns and bred Mast Track, who entered off a fifth-place finish in the Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1) on May 26 at Hollywood. The bay colt won a one-mile allowance race on April 20 at Santa Anita prior to the Shoemaker.

Mast Track earned his fifth win in ten starts and increased his earnings to $614,622. Bred in Kentucky, Mast Track is out of Nawal (Fr), by Homme de Loi.

For an Equibase chart, click here.

Jeff Apel is a Thoroughbred Times assistant daily news editor