After being separated by just a neck in last month\u2019s Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap, Gold Phoenix and Stay Hot will meet for round two in Saturday\u2019s G2 John Henry Turf Championship going 1 \u00bc miles.<\/p>\n
In the 1 3\/8-mile Del Mar Handicap, Gold Phoenix rallied late under Umberto Rispoli to get up just in time and nip Stay Hot. It was an unprecedented fourth consecutive win in the Del Mar Handicap for Gold Phoenix.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat meant a lot to me,\u201d D\u2019Amato said of Gold Phoenix\u2019s historic achievement. \u201cAnd I know it meant a lot to the owners, the help, and everyone who has been with him since Day 1. This is why you get involved in the game for the opportunities to make history like that. It was just a fun day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following that victory, D\u2019Amato had considered waiting to run Gold Phoenix back in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. But after a pair of subsequent works, D\u2019Amato elected to go ahead and enter Gold Phoenix in the John Henry.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came out of the race in really good shape, I have two nice breezes in him and this was coming up as a short field,\u201d D\u2019Amato explained. \u201cI weighed my options and felt it was best to put another race in him here and then not have to train him as hard going into the Breeders\u2019 Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stay Hot will look to see if he can flip the script on Gold Phoenix with the move to Santa Anita for the John Henry. Prior to the Del Mar Handicap, the 4-year-old Summer Front colt had never run beyond 1 1\/8 miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing is it seems he can get the distance,\u201d Eurton said. \u201cHopefully we will fall into a nice spot, get in a good rhythm and we\u2019ll see if we can\u2019t turn the tables.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Stay Hot is three-for-six with two runner-up finishes at Santa Anita. Hall of Famer Mike Smith, who was aboard for the Del Mar Handicap, again has the mount on Stay Hot.<\/p>\n
Among those looking to upend the two favorites is Mondego, the 9-2 third choice on the morning line for trainer Michael McCarthy. Mondego was near the rear of the field in the Del Mar Handicap before finishing well to be beaten just 1 \u00bc lengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a lot of ground to make up and the pace was pedestrian,\u201d McCarthy said. “He finished with a big run.<\/p>\n
McCarthy added he isn\u2019t sure if Mondego will receive a more favorable pace setup his time around in the John Henry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first looked at the overnight, I thought there would be more pace than there actually is,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cWe\u2019ll leave it to Kazushi (Kimura) to work out a trip.\u201d<\/p>\n
The John Henry goes as the sixth race at approximately 3:38 p.m. The field in post position order: Rastaman Vibe, Juan Hernandez (5-1); Balladeer, Antonio Fresu (15-1); Spycatcher, Abel Lezcano (12-1); Dicey Mo Chara, Hector Berrios (10-1); Mondego, Kazushi Kimura (9-2); Stay Hot, Mike Smith (5-2); Gold Phoenix, Umberto Rispoli (3-2).<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 26, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being separated by just a neck in last month\u2019s Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap, Gold Phoenix and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[48974,18392,5989,3004,101,56,9433,54,55],"class_list":["post-162329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-del-mar-handicap","tag-john-henry","tag-phoenix","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-umberto-rispoli","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}