Heavy favorite Acclamation dominated from the state and breezed to a gate-to-wire win Saturday in the $250,000 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Ridden by Joe Talamo, Acclamation went straight to the front of the field of six horses in the Grade I turf race and never yielded. Acclamation led by a length at the mile pole, stretched the lead to three lengths on the second turn and eventually beat Celtic New Year by 3-1/2 lengths to win the race for the second straight year.
''Man, we had a great trip,'' said Talamo, who won two other races Saturday, including the $70,000 Cinderella Stakes with favorite Killer Graces. ''He's always a little slow out of the gate, so I had to send him a little bit, but once he got to the lead he just cruised around there.''
Acclamation covered 1-1/4 miles in 2:00.18 and paid $3.40 for a win bet.
Bourbon Bay, expected to give Acclamation his toughest competition, never came close to the winner and finished a distant third.
Acclamation, a 5-year-old California-bred trained by Don Warren, has won six times in 25 lifetime starts and earned a total of $758,048. He is 5 for 8 on the turf at Hollywood Park.
Warren suggested his horse may switch to the main track to run in the $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9.
Later, in the $100,000 Affirmed Handicap, another strong favorite, Coil, took an early lead to give an easy victory to trainer Bob Baffert.
Ridden by Baffert's go-to jockey Martin Garcia, Coil took the lead at the halfway point and finished one length in front of Runflatout, covering 1-1/16 miles on the main track in 1:42.88.
And in the Saturday's final stakes, the Grade II, $150,000 Honeymoon Handicap for 3-year-old fillies, Sarah's Secret led all the way and beat favorite Star Billing by a half-length, running 1-1/8 miles on turf in 1:50.04 under jockey Rafael Bejarano.
Sarah's Secret has won all four of her career starts for trainer Kathy Walsh and earned $177,000.
