Viadera, a 4-year-old filly bred in Great Britain, continued the Eastern invaders’ dominance during the holiday weekend’s Turf Festival at Del Mar on Sunday, rallying to win the closing-day $300,000 Matriarch Stakes by the slimmest of noses over stablemate Blowout.
Turf standouts from the East won all seven graded stakes races during the four-day extravaganza, and the invaders capped it off by sweeping the first four placings in the Matriarch after finishing 1-2-3 in Friday’s $200,000 Grade II Hollywood Turf Cup.
Turf wizard Chad Brown won four of the seven stakes, including the Matriarch, where he saddled the top two finishers. Overall, he’s won 12 stakes races at Del Mar, including nine of the Grade I variety, despite running horses at the seaside track only a few times per year.
“This weekend has been amazing,” Brown assistant Jose Hernandez said. “I didn’t know which filly was the winner, but I’m happy it turned out to be Viadera.”
Brown entered horses in five of the weekend’s seven stakes and in the only race he didn’t win, the $200,000 Grade II Seabiscuit Handicap on Saturday, his horse, Flavius, finished a close second behind Count Again.
“My boss Chad Brown is an amazing trainer and I just do my best for him,” said the 44-year-old Hernandez, who has been one of Brown’s assistants for 13 years and point man for the Turf Festival invasion the past three years.
“It’s an amazing job for me and I love the horses. In the future, I don’t know when it would be, if Chad wanted me to come out here with a string, I’d like that. We like it out here.”
What’s not to like when you visit sunny San Diego and win Grade I stakes races?
Brown, known for his prowess with turf runners and fillies and mares, repeated his feat of 2018 when he swept the Matriarch and the weekend’s other Grade I, the Hollywood Derby, with Uni and Raging Bull.
Irad Ortiz Jr. rode the first three stakes victories for Brown this past weekend, including this year’s edition of the Hollywood Derby on Saturday aboard Domestic Spending, but Joel Rosario, one of the best finishers in the sport, was aboard Viadera for her sixth victory in 13 races. He’s ridden the Bated Breath filly, who’s won three in a row, in all four of her starts in the U.S.
“Whew, I had to work for that one,” Rosario said. “She’s a good filly, a really good filly. But she makes you work. I had to stay after her. She can run, though, there’s no doubt. I’m lucky that Chad Brown gives me an opportunity like this. Grass horses and especially fillies. He’s the best.”
Viadera, fourth choice in the wagering at 5-1, ran the mile in a stakes record 1:33.03, shattering the old mark by more than a second.
Glatt brews upset
Beer Can Man, recently purchased by Little Red Feather Racing and Sterling Stables, proved he could go two turns, winning the $100,000 Grade III Cecil B. DeMille Stakes by a half-length at 19-1.
The 2-year-old Can the Man colt had never raced farther than 6 furlongs in his first four races, but he brought a two-race winning streak from Indiana Downs and scored the biggest upset of the day’s 10-race program.
Ridden by Juan Hernandez, Beer Can Man sat third much of the way before closing for the victory, holding off Caisson for his third win in five starts. He ran the 1 mile in 1:34.75 while increasing his career bankroll to $100,580 with the first-place prize of $60,000.
“We entered him the first weekend of the meeting, thinking we could run then and then come back in this race,” trainer Mark Glatt said. “But that race didn’t go, so (the owners) told me to get him ready to go a mile.
“I was a little skeptical to be honest, but the horse relaxed great. Juan put a nice ride on him and he got the money.”
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