Trainer Phil D’Amato calls 5-year-old gelding Acclimate a “rags to riches” story.
That would be accurate for his career, which got off to an unimpressive start, and for the last two races.
Turnaround are much more dramatic than going from being a ragged 11th in one stakes race to winning impressively in the next.
Acclimate pulled that off on Saturday, capturing the $250,000 Grade II Del Mar Handicap. In the 1 3/8 miles race on the turf course, Florent Geroux put Acclimate ($16.60) out to the early lead, paced him beautifully and they held on to win by a length over Oscar Dominguez.