NEWS
Halo Najib wins Darley OBS Championship Stakes
Posted: Monday, February 11, 2008 7:20 PM
HAJO NAJIB
Photo by Z
by Pete Denk
Waiting behind a wall of horses for most of the race, jockey Kent Desormeaux and Halo Najib found room four wide while straightening for home and scored a 2 ¾-length victory in the $150,000 Darley Ocala Breeders’ Sale Championship Stakes at the Ocala Training Center on Monday.
The Championship Stakes, which drew a field of eight three-year-old colts and geldings, was the richest purse on the annual five-race program for OBSC sales graduates, sponsored for the first time by Darley. The OBSC February sale of selected two-year-olds in training is Tuesday.
Halo Najib, owned by Zayat Stables and trained by Dale Romans, was a $235,000 buy-back at the 2007 OBSC March sale of selected two-year-olds in training. The Halo’s Image colt has won both of his starts over synthetic surfaces and could make his next start in the $500,000 Lane’s End Stakes (G2) at Turfway Park on March 22.
“It was an unbelievable day,” said winning owner Ahmed Zayat. “OBS and Darley did a fantastic job. They are to be commended. They invested tons of money and did it the right way, coming here and saying Florida is important. I love it. Look at the turnout. It was a gorgeous day.”
Hello From Heaven finished second in the feature race, and Ghostly Thunder was third. Final time for 1 1/16 miles was 1:46.40.
Halo Najib, who was already Grade 2-placed, has won two of five starts and earned $171,416.
“He’s learning to be a professional racehorse,” Desormeaux said. “It makes my job a lot easier to be able to give him that kind of ride, to set him up and teach him what the ultimate goal is, which is the first Saturday in May. He took that step today and did it with great success.”
Monday’s card featured the first official races to be run on OBSC’s new Safetrack, a synthetic all-weather fiber enhanced surface made by Andrews Bowen Ltd.
Jockey Manoel Cruz, who won the $100,000 Darley OBS Championship Stakes for three-year-old fillies aboard Calico Bay, was one of several riders who gave the new surface good marks.
Calico Bay grabbed the lead in early stretch and drew off by eight lengths while drifting extremely wide, matching Halo Najib’s winning time.
“I like the track. It’s a little bit fast, a lot different from Calder [Race Course], but I like it,” Cruz said. “My filly could have won by ten, but when she took the lead, she started looking around for something to do.”
Earlier on the card, Banga Ridge and jockey Elvis Trujillo opened a five-length lead in the $50,000 Darley OBS Sprint Stakes for three-year-old fillies and held off a fast-closing Orinoquia by a nose.
Ben and the Twin, with Eddie Castro aboard, won the $75,000 Darley OBS Sprint Stakes for three-year-old colts and geldings. Straight Faced, with Edgar Prado up, took top honors in the $50,000 Florida Thoroughbred Charities Stakes, which was open to horses sired by stallions offered at the charity’s auction.
“We had picture perfect weather and good fields of horses put together,” said OBSC General Manager Tom Ventura. “The races were very formful. There were horses that won from behind and on the lead. We saw some high profile jockeys, trainers, owners, and horses. It was a very good day.”
Admission was free, and OBSC officials estimated the crowd at about 7,500.
For the Equibase charts, click here.
Pete Denk is sales editor of Thoroughbred Times
