MADEO WINS DEL MAR DERBY GII

Sunday, Del Mar
DEL MAR DERBY-GII, $350,000, DMR, 8-31, 3yo,
1 1/8mT, 1:46 3/5, fm.
1--#@MADEO, 122, c, 3, by MIZZEN MAST
1st Dam: Passion Flower (SW, $280,629), by Deputy Minister
2nd Dam: L'Amour Toujours, by Blushing Groom (Fr)
3rd Dam: Paint the Town, by *Vaguely Noble
O/B-Mr & Mrs Jerome Moss (KY); T-John A Shirreffs;
J-Mike E Smith; $210,000. Lifetime Record: 7-3-1-0,
$317,915. Werk Nick Rating: B+.
Margins: HF, 3/4, NK. Odds: 10.80, 0.90, 13.70.

Madeo, a back-to-back winner at Hollywood and Santa Anita this spring, was second by a neck in Hollywood’s May 24 Alydar S. and was fourth in the July 12 GII Swaps S. before switching to the turf for a good late-running fourth-place finish in the Aug. 9 GII La Jolla S. at this course. The Moss homebred stalked pacesetting Tangled Tango from fourth, moved to the outside for the stretch run and overtook the leader with a strong move passing midstretch. He held off the lateclosing favorite Gio Ponti for the break-out win, while Tangled Tango just held third over the even later closing Nownownow (Whywhywhy).

‘He's a little bit of a funny horse to ride,’ Mike Smith admitted of the winner. ‘I wanted to keep him down inside and covered up. He does better there. But then I had to get him out and going, but not get him going too soon. We found out if we let him out too soon, he gets to playing around and doing all sorts of things. But it broke right today and he was good enough.’

Date: 02 September 2008