BOURBON BAY MUCH THE BEST IN COUGAR II H. SCORE

Denali sale graduate BOURBON BAY surged past the pacesetter Dahoud (NZ) in the stretch and won the $125,000 Cougar II H.-G3 by 2 ¾ lengths at Del Mar for his seventh win in 20 starts. “It all set up good,” winning jockey Joe Talamo said. “I was in the right spot and hitting my spots all the way. That’s easy to do when you ride a good horse like this. They put you in the right spots.” BOURBON BAY completed the 1 ½ miles for his first stakes score on the main track. He also qualified for the Breeders’ Cup Marathon-G2 via the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” series though trainer Neil Drysdale said no decision has been made on the race. Despite being “more a turf horse”, BOURBON BAY traveled easily on the synthetic surface. He raced comfortably in fourth, advanced to third with two furlongs to run before powering to the front inside the eighth pole.