Reba’s Gold Closes Well

Reba’s Gold, who had never run at Fairplex Park, beat a couple of Pomona veterans Sunday to win the $100,000 Ralph M. Hinds Pomona Handicap on the closing day of the 17-day marathon meet at the Los Angeles County Fair.

Owned by Alex Trebek of “Jeopardy” fame, Reba’s Gold passed longshot Hook Call in the stretch and then, under jockey David Flores, easily held off the second- and third-place finishers, Nates Colony and Sigfreto, for a 3 3/4-length win. Between them, Nates Colony and Sigfreto had been undefeated in five starts at Fairplex.

Running about 1 1/8 miles in a good time of 1:49 4/5, the Dan Hendricks-trained Reba’s Gold was the high weight at 119 pounds. The favored winner, a 5-year-old son of Slew o’ Gold and Lovely Reba, paid $5.80 after surviving a foul claim that was lodged by Doug Peterson, the trainer of Sigfreto. Winning $55,000, to go over $400,000 in earnings, Reba’s Gold has five wins, six seconds and four thirds in 26 starts.

Business was generally down at a meet that started after the California Horse Racing Board, in June, had turned down a request to move the fair dates to Santa Anita.

“After the first weekend, we were down about 20%,” said Jim Henwood, president of the fair. “Tracks all over the country were registering similar drops. With us, it was partly because we were comparing figures that related to Sept. 11. We stayed open last year, and for many days we were the only game in town. But I was proud of the way we rebounded this year after the slow start.... One thing we’re very much opposed to is splitting up our 17 days among the other tracks [Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar].”

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The only winning ticket on the Fairplex record pick-six payoff of $416,435.20 was sold at the state betting hub in Maine. The Fairplex record of $199,346.60 was set in 1999....Winning his fourth consecutive Fairplex title, Martin Pedroza totaled 27 wins and increased his record career total to 349 at Pomona.... Flores, No. 1 on the Pomona stakes victory list, added No. 52.... Doug O’Neil won the training title with nine wins.

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Running a three-horse entry, trainer Bobby Frankel won the $750,000 Turf Classic at Belmont Park with Denon, whose nemesis in the previous two races, With Anticipation, was caught between horses in the stretch and settled for sixth place. Denon paid $5.10 as the favorite under jockey Edgar Prado, running 1 1/2 miles on a track listed as good in 2:28 2/5. Frankel said that Denon would go on to the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Arlington Park on Oct. 26.

Another likely Breeders’ Cup candidate is Ballingarry, an Aidan O’Brien-trained colt who won the $1.5-million Canadian International at Woodbine by about two lengths over Falcon Flight, the 5-2 favorite ridden by Pat Valenzuela. Ballingarry, ridden by Mick Kinane, paid $10.20.