It was a two stakes winner day for BLAME on Sunday when only hours after one 3-year-old scored a Group 3 win in France, 3-year-old Officiating win the Bear’s Den Stakes at Gulfstream.
Switching to seven furlongs on the dirt after rain moved the race off the turf, Officiating proved to love the switch.
Sitting just off the pacesetter for much of the run, the Saffie Joseph Jr. trainee went three wide when it was time to run and took the advantage with a furlong left. Once he had the lead, he wasn’t giving it up and raced clear of stakes winner and Grade 2-placed Papetu by 3 ½ lengths with third placed Dark Timber 7 ½ lengths behind the winner in third.
Officiating is a homebred runner for Vegso Racing Stable and has finished in the top three in eight of 12 starts with over $145,000 in earnings.
The colt is a half-brother to champion Caledonia Road and stakes winner One of a Kind with all three of their dam’s runners now stakes winners. That dam is a half-sister to stakes winner Citizen Advocate and out of a half-sister to stakes winner Database.
Database is also the dam of WAR FRONT’s Grade 1 winner Data Link with another half-sister the dam of Grade 1 winner Hymn Book and a third half-sister the dam of multiple graded stakes placed Attachment Rate.