Forged Steel Ships East to West and Dominates Hollywood Gold Cup
Forged Steel delivered a commanding wire-to-wire performance Monday, winning the Grade 2, $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup by 9½ lengths at Santa Anita. The 1¼-mile race for horses ages 3 and up was contested over a fast main track and featured a field of five.
A Breakthrough Victory
The win marked the first stakes victory in 10 attempts for the 4-year-old gray colt by Vekoma. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. captured the Gold Cup for the second consecutive year, having won the race last year with Skippylongstocking.
The Race
One of only three eastern shippers on the entire card, Forged Steel was sent off at 3-1 and controlled the race from the outset. He set fractions of :23.22, :46.73, 1:11.25, and 1:35.66 before drawing away from stalking favorite Malarchuk (9-5) coming out of the second turn.
Ridden by Flavien Prat, Forged Steel cruised through the finish in a final time of 2:01.58—the fastest Hollywood Gold Cup since Accelerate’s 2:01.38 in 2018.
Order of Finish
Malarchuk, ridden by Juan Hernández, held second in a photo finish with Mc Vay (8-1) in third and British Isles (7-2) in fourth. Subsanador (5-2) finished last.
Payouts
- Forged Steel: $8.20, $5.60, $3.40
- Malarchuk: $3.60, $2.60
- Mc Vay: $3.40
Prat’s Adventurous Journey
For Prat, the victory came after a challenging cross-country trip from New York to Santa Anita that caused him to miss his scheduled mount one race earlier.
“We got delayed for 3½ hours. It was a very long trip,” Prat said. “We stayed probably seven or eight hours on the plane. I’m just glad to be here. … The horse ran a good race. It was my first time aboard him. He had a good run in his past races, and he showed another good run here today.”
This was Prat’s second Hollywood Gold Cup victory. He previously won the race in 2021 aboard Country Grammer for trainer Bob Baffert, who had no horses entered on Monday’s card.
Connections and Record
Owned by C2 Racing Stable and Mathis Stables, Forged Steel won two allowance races this year, most recently on May 2 at Oaklawn. With Monday’s victory, he improved his career record to 18: 5-3-1 with earnings of $416,130.
