Count Again Locks Up BC Berth in Shoemaker

[Wandering Eyes]

COUNT AGAIN (g, 7, Awesome Again–Count to Three, by Red Ransom) sliced through horses and blew past heavily favored Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) in the lane to annex Monday's GI Shoemaker Mile S. at Santa Anita. Earning him an automatic spot in the starting gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile later this year, Count Again's victory was the fourth on the card for East Coast invader Irad Ortiz, Jr.–with a runner-up finish in the only other race run to that point–and was won in notably similar fashion to Ortiz's score in the GI Hollywood Gold Cup one race earlier.

Count Again was content to caboose the field early as 2-5 Smooth Like Strait was forced to stalk through splits of :22.54 and :45.58. The chalk blew the race apart on the turn, but Count Again immediately caught the eye in the scan for potential challengers. Having been guided out into the clear and already into second as noses pointed for home, Count Again's momentum could not be stopped as he took over at the eighth pole and built his advantage to some three lengths at the line. Masteroffoxhounds (War Front) gave trainer Phil D'Amato the first and third finishers.

A Grade III winner over 10 panels at Woodbine in 2020 for his breeder Sam-Son Farm and trainer Gail Cox, Count Again was bought into by Agave Racing and transferred to D'Amato ahead of a last-to-first score in that November's GII Seabiscuit H. (Agave and D'Amato had previously taken a pair of GI Bing Crosbys with fellow Sam-Son product Ransom the Moon {Malibu Moon}). The gelding's form had been somewhat in and out since then, but he kicked off his 7-year-old season with a course-and-distance victory in the Feb. 5 GIII Thunder Road and doubled up in the GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile Mar. 5. Count Again was most recently sixth in a slow-paced running of Keeneland's GI Maker's Mark Mile Apr. 15, finishing one spot ahead of next-out GII Dinner Party S. winner Set Piece (GB) (Dansili {GB}). Smooth Like Strait was third after setting the pace. Lifetime Record: 17-7-1-4.

O-Agave Racing Stable & Sam-Son Farm. B-Sam-Son Farm (ON). T-Philip D'Amato.

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