Bulldog Racing’s Alpha Bettor arrived in the nick of time to capture Friday’s $150,000 Grade 2 Autumn Stakes, at Woodbine.
A chestnut son of Alphabet Soup trained by Dan Vella and ridden by Justin Stein, Alpha Bettor arrived at the 1 1/16-mile ‘Poly’ stake off a narrow front-running defeat in the Grade 3 Durham Cup to Autumn rival James Street.
Alpha Bettor raced from third position in the Autumn as Occasional View set splits of :24.97 and :48.93 while under pressure from Pender Harbour.
Occasional View, with Omar Moreno up, put away Pender Harbour through the turn and kicked on energetically turning for home but Alpha Bettor, with Stein in the irons, launched a menacing bid to nail the pacesetter in the final stride by a neck. Alpha Bettor covered 1 1/16-miles in 1:43.79.
It was the third graded stakes score of the meet for Alpha Bettor who will be amongst the favourites to earn Sovereign Award honours as Canada’s champion older male.
In addition to the Autumn score, Alpha Bettor notched similar rallying wins in the Grade 2 Eclipse and Grade 3 Seagram Cup.
“He’s an amazing horse and has a ton of talent. The crew has done a great job with him,” said Stein.
Although Alpha Bettor finished second in the Durham Cup, it was a deceptively strong effort from the five-year-old horse who battled with the favoured Delegation on the lead only to lose the race in the final yards.
Stein believes that allowing Alpha Bettor to relax in the early running of the Autumn made all the difference in the stretch run.
“He likes to have a bit of competition,” said Stein. “The two races he won earlier this year, there was a late run to be made and he had a target. That’s what he likes to do. In the last race (Durham Cup) he made the lead before the quarter pole and it threw him off his game. He relishes the competition and he really dug in to run that horse down.”
Alpha Bettor banked $90,000 in victory, while improving his record to 8-5-2 from 26 career starts.
He returned $10.10, $5.50 and $3.90, pairing with Occasional View ($6.70, $6.40) for a $106.60 (3-8) exactor. A 3-8-9 (Pender Harbour, $6.10 to show) triactor was worth $510.90. Ultimate Destiny completed a $1 Superfecta (3-8-9-4) worth $848.10. Mezzano was scratched.
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