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Upsets were the order of the day in the weekend's two biggest races for older horses.

With Heatseeker and Lava Man taking a pass, Saturday's $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup lacked some of its potential star power. That didn't detract from the upset victory posted by Mast Track.

Mast Track, sporting blinkers for the first time, went right to the lead in the 1 1/4-mile event, typically a defining race for West Coast distance horses and an early prep for the Breeders' Cup Classic.

With Tyler Blaze nursing his speed, the 4-year-old Mizzen Mast colt maintained a clear advantage and increased the margin in the final furlong, winning by 2 1/4 lengths over the favorite, Go Between. Student Council finished third. The final time was a respectable 2:01.37.

Mast Track came into the race off a fifth-place finish in the Shoemaker Mile. He won for the fifth time in 10 starts and the first time in a graded stakes.

"Everything worked out just right," said winning rider Tyler Baze. "We knew there was no speed in the race. They put blinkers on hi because they wanted him to make the lead. I just let him get comfortable by himself and find his own stride."

Humberto Asciano, assistant to winning trainer Bobby Frankel, said Frankel "has a lot of confidence in this horse. After Heatseeker scratched, it was anybody'a race, I guess.

In Saturday's $400,000 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park in New York, Frost Giant, at 40-1 odds, battled much of the way with Solar Flare before edging clear in the final sixteenth to win by 1/2 length. Rising Moon was third, 3 lengths farther back. A.P. Arrow, making his first start since running fourth in the Dubai World Cup two months ago, never got going and finished sixth of eight.

Frost Giant, owned and trained by the same team that handles Triple Crown flop Big Brown, picked up just his fourth win in 13 lifetime starts. His best previous finish in a graded stakes was a victory in the Group 1 Killavullan Stakes at Leopardstown in Ireland in October of 2006. The 5-year-old son of Giant's Causeway ran the 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.58 with Rudy Rodriguez up.

"For the last two or three weeks, this horse settled down in the mornings," said trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. "This was mostly Rudy -- not just today but in the mornings. You could see it happening. The owners paid a lot of money for this horse and it worked out great."

Other races potentially impacting the Classic Division:

-- Wayzatta Bay posted an equally stunning upset in Saturday night's $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap, stalking the pace and then taking charge in the stretch run to win by 3 1/2 lengths -- at odds of 38-1. Another longshot, Sumac, finished second with Temporary Saint third. The favorite, Zanjero, had no late rally and finished fourth. Wayzatta Bay, a 5-year-old, Kentucky-bred son of Roar, got the 9 furlongs on a fast track in 1:48.47. Israel Ocampo had the mount for trainer Judi Hicklin.

-- Tiz Now Tiz upset Friday's $250,000 Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows, rallying five-wide into the stretch and drawing off to score by 2 1/4 lengths over Maya's Storm. The latter then was set down to fifth for interference in the stretch, advancing Repenting to second and Day of Victory to third. The favorite, Z Fortune, was caught in traffic under restraint and faded in the late going to finish seventh, beating only an eased horse. Tiz Now Tiz, a Kentucky-bred colt by Tiznow, ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:41.69. Coming into the race off an allowance victory at Churchill Downs, Tiz Now Tiz picked up his third straight win. Miguel Mena rode the winner for trainer Eoin Harty.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 06/30/2008

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