Overcoming a foot issue that had kept him out of training since winning the Grade-3 Toboggan Handicap a month ago, Salutos Amigos proved once again much the best when winning today’s Grade-3 Tom Fool Handicap at Aqueduct. The five-year-old son of Salute the Sarge carried 125 pounds, between two and 13 pounds more than his six competitors. Settled in third by Cornelio Velasquez, Salutos Amigos relished the muddy track and rallied with ease to a four length victory in the six furlong contest.
“This is a special race, with all the training that he missed and to run the way he did”, said trainer and co-owner David Jacobsen in an interview with bloodhorse.com. “We’ll see where we go from here. We were really concentrating on this race, and now that we have this one behind us, I will take Dubai a lot more serious. After today, he proved that he is a special horse. He’s been running all year, and he’s been so strong and good. He’s had the foundation, so the training he missed was like a mini-vacation, but it didn’t affect him at all.”
The fourth graded stakes win for Salutos Amigos boosted his earnings to $897,406, and landed his sire in the “Top Ten” of California’s General Sire list. With an introductory fee of $1,000, Salute the Sarge offers breeders the best value among California’s leading sires.
Read the entire article by bloodhorse.com and watch the race replay here.
Link to handicapper Dan Illman’s blog on DRF.com.