CYPRESS — The scene was fresh. The stakes result looked familiar.
Six days after Phil D’Amato topped off his Santa Anita Hollywood Meet trainers title by winning the San Juan Capistrano Stakes with Gold Phoenix, D’Amato marked the first weekend of the spring Los Alamitos season on Saturday by finishing 1-2 in the Bertrando Stakes with Shea Brennan and Speedy Wilson.
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Four-year-old Shea Brennan and jockey Armando Ayuso set the pace in the 1-mile race for California-breds. They pulled away to win by more than three lengths, with Speedy Wilson and rider Ricardo Gonzalez catching Coach Cronin and Mike Smith for second.
Shea Brennan paid $7.60 to win after his fourth victory in an 11-race career. The field was reduced to five horses when 2024 Bertrando winner None Above the Law was scratched during the afternoon.
D’Amato said he didn’t expect a front-running performance by Shea Brennan, but indicated the colt was responding to racing for the first time since November.
“I thought Shea Brennan would be tracking (another leader), but the horse was so sharp that Armando made the right move to just go with it and not fight him,” D’Amato said.
D’Amato hasn’t guessed wrong about much lately.
The victory was the 50-year-old San Pedro native’s sixth in the past eight stakes he has entered at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos, dating back to a victory by Thought Process in the Grade I Gamely Stakes on Memorial Day and including wins by Stronghold, Darya, Kentucky Gal and Gold Phoenix.
“We’ve got a good two-month run going,” D’Amato said in the winner’s circle on the second day of Los Alamitos’ three-week daytime meet. “Things are heating up for the barn, and hopefully they stay that way. We always kind of try to feel our way through the early part of the year. We give a lot of our horses breaks. (Then we) bring them back and get them ready for the big-money races in the second half of the year.
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“It’s good to keep these horses fresh and happy. They can run like Gold Phoenix, as an 8-year-old, if you do it that way.”
The $100,000 Bertrando was the first stakes-level race of 2026 for Cal-bred older males going two turns on dirt. Shea Brennan had won a Los Al mile before in the December 2024 King Glorious Stakes for 2-year-old Cal-breds. Owned by Nick Alexander, who also has Speedy Wilson, Shea Brennan has also won at 6 and 6-1/2 furlongs and at 1-1/16 miles in the January 2025 Cal Cup Derby at Santa Anita.
Saturday, D’Amato said he could start Shea Brennan next in the Grade II San Diego Handicap at 1-1/16 miles July 18 at Del Mar, which opens its summer season the day before.
Tracks change. D’Amato keeps winning.
SHORTENING UP
• Julian Leparoux won at Los Alamitos for the first time in his career when he rode Big Reflections ($4.20) to the gelding’s maiden victory in the second race. Leparoux, a 42-year-old French native, is moving from Kentucky to ride full-time at the Del Mar meet that starts July 17. Saturday he was subbing for Joel Rosario, who was late returning from a race Friday in Kentucky.
• Juan Hernandez capped his trip to Royal Ascot with a sixth-place finish on 12-1 Ez Tina in the 21-horse Norfolk Stakes for 2-year-olds, won by Orthodox. The California jockey made a strong first showing in England, winning Friday’s Palace of Holyroodhouse with 5-2 Bacio and getting third in Wednesday’s Queen Mary with 11-1 Ruiva. All are trained by American Wesley Ward.
• Eight nominations for the Saturday, June 27 Los Alamitos Derby include Sabino Canyon, a maiden who would try to give trainer Bob Baffert his 10 th consecutive win in the 1-1/8-mile race. Noms include Secured Freedom, One More Freud, Constitution Andi and Decisive Win, the 1-2-3-4 finishers in last Monday’s Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita. Entries will be set Wednesday.
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