Win Willy rallied to win the $350,000 Grade II Oaklawn Stakes on Saturday, beating Misremembered by a length.
Win Willy, ridden by Cliff Berry and trained by Mac Robertson, ran 1 1-8 miles in 1:48.820 and paid $12, $3.40 and $2.20. Misremembered, co-owned by Jill Baffert, the wife of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, returned $2.40 and $2.10, and Winslow Homer paid $3 to show.
Win Willy, a local favorite after winning the 2009 Rebel Stakes at 56-1 odds,has two victories, a second and a third in four stakes races this season at Oaklawn.
Win Willy was last in the six-horse field until almost a mile, then rallied on the backstretch to overtake Misremembered with a furlong to go.
''He showed up today,'' Berry said. ''Mac has changed up on how he works and he went back there, very relaxed and that was the key. When I asked him around the 3-8ths pole, I knew he was going to be tough to beat. It feels great to finally get the victory. Those other races the pace didn't work for us, that pace today really helped us and made a difference.''
Robertson said the first quarter time was all he needed to see.
''When I saw that,'' Robertson said, ''I knew we had us a winner. He was right today. Last year, he stopped at the 3-16th pole, so I'd been pointing to this race for 12 months.
''We got a little help. I really thought that when they (Winslow Homer) went 46 and change that we had it won. The way he had been training and the way horses bad been making up ground today I felt really good.''
