INGLEWOOD, Calif. (July 13, 2008) - Trainer John Sadler capped a superb meeting by saddling Warning Zone to upset 6-5 favorite Cedar Mountain in Sunday's $156,000 Sunset Handicap on closing day of Hollywood Park's 60-day Spring/Summer Meet.
Sadler, who clinched his first Spring/Summer training title a day earlier, saddled 30 winners, including a meet-high seven in stakes races. Three of his stakes wins came June 28 on Hollywood Gold Cup Day and a fourth one day later.
Warning Zone, ridden masterfully by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, saved ground while rallying to post a one-length victory over Cedar Mountain. The 4-year-old Virginia-bred son of Chester House covered 1½ miles on the Lakeside Turf Course in 2:26.95 under co-high weight of 117 pounds to register his first win in six 2008 starts.
Cedar Mountain, ridden by Rafael Bejarano, closed for second but was a grave threat to the winner. Chilean-bred Porfido finished another half-length back in third under jockey David Flores, while Transduction Gold was fourth in the field of seven older horses.
Warning Zone, whose previous victory came here in the War Chant in November of 2007, also won a division of the Generous Stakes here in 2006. He won for the fourth time in 15 lifetime starts while banking $97,200 Sunday to boost his earnings to $341,310.
"I think the highlight of this meeting was Black Mamba for me because she's been such a nice mare," Sadler said of the Beverly Hills Handicap winner. "She's run with Citronnade, Nashoba's Key, Precious kitten and for me that race was great, obviously that weekend was a highlight - four stakes in two days. I've been here a long time, been a lot of years as a blue-collar consistent type trainer and now we're going up a level. It's a lifetime of work."
Warning Zone, the second choice at 4-1, paid $10.80, $4 and $3.20. Cedar Mountain returned $2.80 and $2.40, while the show payoff on Porfido was $3.60.
"The course had a little more give in it today and it really suited him well," Smith said. "Of course the distance always helps. And I had a dream trip. I saw the one (Boule d'Or) getting out a little bit so I knew when he had to ask him he was probably going to drift off. So I went for it and it worked out. He was sitting on a big race and he really looked the part, too. You can't go far enough for him. A mile and one-half, a mile and three-quarters, he loves it."
