Godolphin Racing's Sharp Impact remained perfect in his brief career with a 3/4-length victory in the $75,000 Spectacular Bid Stakes Saturday at Arlington Park. Ray Sibille rode the son of Siphon, who covered the six furlongs in a stakes record 1:10.29 over a fast track.Sharp Impact raced just off the pace set by Bold America, who led through the first half mile in 45.42 seconds, rallied to the front in the stretch and held off a late rally by Illinois-bred Wiggins.Sent off as the 6-5 favorite, Sharp Impact paid $4.40, $3 and $2.20."When this horse ran the last time, they said, 'Don't rush him, don't let him move until the eighth pole,' which is very unorthodox for me," Sibille said. "They told me, 'Just wait and he'll show you some good running.' So I was pretty confident today because he really only ran an eighth of a mile last time. He's a pretty nice colt, and he acts like he can go on even though his breeding doesn't particularly indicate that."Wiggins finished a length ahead of Unleash the Power for the place. Wiggins returned $5 and $3 while Unleash the Power paid $2.80. Shandy, Oneoftheboys, Midway Road, pacesetter Bold America and Westcoastwildcat completed the order of finish."We just missed," said Wiggins' trainer Ken Spraggins. "I thought we were going to win it but speed was holding today and that horse just didn't come back to us. We'll try again. This horse wants to go longer."
For Sharp Impact, the victory was his second in as many trips to the post and the $45,000 winner's share elevated his bankroll to $64,000. The Spectacular Bid serves as a prep race for the Arlington-Washington Futurity (gr. III), a one-mile race to be run at Arlington Sept. 28 as part of the track's Preview Weekend."He's trained nicely up to this race and we thought he'd run well," said Dave Duggan, assistant to trainer EoinHarty. "I'm going to continue to train him like he's going in the Futurity and after a few days we'll take a look at it and decide what we're going to do with him."(Chart, Equibase)