Cayton Park Stud Ltd.’s Beach Bomb, a two-time Group 1 winner in South Africa, led every step of the way to register her first North American victory in Saturday’s $165 000 Gr3 The Very One at Gulfstream Park.
The 37th running of the 1 3/8-mile The Very One for fillies and mares 4 and up on the grass was the fifth of nine stakes, eight graded, worth $2,15 million in purses on a blockbuster 14-race program headlined by the $415 000 Gr2 Coolmore Fountain of Youth for 3-year-olds.
Flashback to October 2024 – Beach Bomb in work prior to Breeders’ Cup (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
In her first start since running eighth in the Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on 2 November last year, Beach Bomb gave jockey Luis Saez his first win in the three-turn The Very One.
It was the second for trainer Graham Motion following Inimitable Romanee in 2014.
Beach Bomb, with Saez aboard for the first time, broke alertly from Post 5 in a field of nine and settled on the front end through splits of :24.17, :50.48 and 1:16.05, with 12-1 longshot Whatlovelookslike in closest chase.
Saez had plenty of horse left on the second turn for home and outsprinted Immensitude and late-running La Mehana to the wire to win by a length.
The winning time was 2:14.03 over a firm turf course.
Queen Regent, Forever After All, Whatloveslooklike, Be My Sunshine, Youknownothing and Blush completed the order of finish.
In 2023 the Drakenstein Stud-bred Beach Bomb won the World Sports Betting Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas and Cartier Gr1 Paddock Stakes in back-to-back starts. She made her U.S. debut last summer running second in the Violet at Monmouth Park and was third in the Gr2 Rodeo Drive in her Breeders’ Cup prep.
Winning trainer Graham Motion said: “I kind of told [Luis] to go forward, so I’m not surprised. Luis helped him away from there. It looked like nobody wanted to go.”
“I think Grade 1 may be a stretch for her, but she didn’t run badly in the Breeders’ Cup. She didn’t get beat that badly. We liked her. Everything had to go perfectly to get to the Breeders; Cup. We gave her a little break after that to let her catch up with herself and settle in. Things went well for this race.”
“I haven’t thought much about [what’s next]. I don’t know if a mile and a half is what she wants to do. I think a mile and a quarter is a pretty good trip for her.”
Winning jockey Luis Saez said: “We were expecting to sit second or third. We knew we had some speed inside. But she broke really well, and she controlled the pace. So we decided to take the lead. I had a lot of horse and when I asked her, she gave me a good run.”
