‘Gold-Star dead heat for Indiana Derby
One set the pace, the other came from next to last, but in the end STAR
DABBLER (Saint Ballado) and CIELO GOLD (Conquistador Cielo) both hit the line at
the same time in the $513,200
Indiana Derby (G2) Saturday evening.
With Richard Migliore aboard wearing the colors of Barry K. Schwartz, Star
Dabbler was sent off the 3-1 second choice to return $4.60, $5 and $4 while
keying exotics of $44 (1-5 exacta), $198 (1-5-4 trifecta) and $884.20 (1-5-4-11
superfecta). Hillcrest Farms Racing LLC’s Cielo Gold and jockey Brian Hernandez
Jr. were worth $5, $10.40 and $5.80 at 16-1, wile on top of the $80.20 exacta
(5-1), $476 trifecta (5-1-4) and $2,323.80 superfecta (5-1-4-11).
Star Dabbler broke well from his rail post and proceeded to set the pace
through splits of :22 1/5, :45 4/5, 1:10 1/5 and 1:36 1/5. All the while, the
Hal Wiggins-trained Cielo Gold was biding his time after a tight start, slowly
making up ground and eventually angled to midtrack. Catching the pacesetter,
Cielo Gold gained a slight advantage, but Star Dabbler fought back. The two
crossed under the wire at the same moment, five lengths clear of
Smokeyjonessutton (You and I) in third, who paid $5.20 at 7-1.
“This is such a nice horse,” Migliore said of Star Dabbler. “When we got in
the stretch, he stuck his toes in a little when he saw some tire tracks, but he
got his mind back on his business and came back strong. He fought all the way to
the wire.”
Mantoloking (Unbridled’s Song), Plug Me In (Hold for Gold), Simon Pure
(Silver Deputy), 3-5 favorite Bright One (Dance Brightly), Acts Like a King (Part the
Waters), Jacinth (Crafty Prospector) and Summer Gulch (Brolly) completed the
order of finish while Dr. Pleasure (Thunder Gulch) and Lewis Michael (Rahy) were
both scratched.
Star Dabbler and Cielo Gold both earned their first stakes victories with
this one. The Michael Hushion-conditioned Star Dabbler previously ran second in
the King’s Bishop S. (G1) and now owns an 8-4-3-1, $319,936 record. Cielo Gold
was second in the West Virginia Derby (G3) and fourth in the St. Louis Derby in
his past two starts, and now boasts a 12-4-3-2 career mark with $474,311 in
lifetime earnings.
“The connections of this horse really did a good job preparing him for this
race tonight,” Hernandez said of Cielo Gold. “He was much stronger tonight than
he was in his last start in the St. Louis Derby. I’m not sure where he will head
after this race.”
Bred in Florida by Four Horseman’s Ranch & the Saint Ballado Syndicate, Star
Dabbler brought $180,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. He is out of the
stakes-winning Meadow Silk (Meadowlake), making him a full brother to multiple
stakes-placed Bay Head King and a half to the yearling colt Ten Bagger
(Montbrook) and an unnamed 2006 filly by More Than Ready.
Cielo Gold, bred by Catherine Parke & Robert Spiegler in Kentucky, RNA’d at
$24,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale. The dark bay is out of
Grade 2 winner Private Light (Private Account), who has also produced Grade
2-placed Sailor’s Warning (Storm Cat) and an unnamed yearling colt by Tale of
the Cat.