Sweettrickydancer Gets Serious in 'Wildcat

Sweettrickydancer notched her third consecutive turf victory by winning the $100,000 Hollywood Wildcat Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Calder Race Course on Saturday.

She is trained by Rodolfo Garcia and represents his first stakes winner in this country. Garcia is originally from Venezuela and has been training Thoroughbreds in the United States since 1997.

Ridden by Eibar Coa, the Kentucky-bred daughter of Green Dancer ran in the middle of the pack for most of the 1 1/16-mile before making her move on the final turn and launching a full-out bid at the quarter pole. Sweettrickydancer made an explosive run down the stretch to win by a length over another closer, Askforaraise. A half-length back was Running Debate in third.

Sent off at odds of 4-to-1, Sweettrickydancer ran the 1 1/16 miles over the firm turf in 1:42 3/5 and paid $10.40, 5.60 and 4.00. Askforaraise returned 13.00 and 8.80 while Running Debate paid 7.40 for the show. U K Trick finished fourth to complete another big superfecta at $24,298.60. In the Mecke Stakes earlier on the card, the superfecta paid $30,767.30.

Sweettrickydancer is a homebred for owner Eduardo Carlos Rojas, Sr.

"This is very exciting," said Garcia. "It's my first stakes win. I probably wasted a couple of races running her on dirt. As a Green Dancer, I pretty much knew her future would be going long on turf."

"Last time she improved a lot and now she's getting very serious," said Coa. "That's what she needed – she's got a lot of potential. She's been playing around. Now that she's serious she could be very good in stakes races."

(Chart, Equibase)