Grab The Prize Wins Monrovia to Complete Vienna Hat Trick

Darrell Vienna remembered saddling three winners in a day twice before, but what made Saturday’s hat trick at Santa Anita special was that the trainer’s third victory came in the $106,900 Monrovia Handicap.

Grab The Prize, last in the seven-horse field at the eighth pole, closed with gusto under Alex Solis to win the Monrovia by half a length over Finite E.F. Evil’s Pic was third in the 6 1/2-furlong race, which was taken off the grass because of Santa Anita’s rain-drenched turf course. Dixie Pearl, the 17-10 favorite, finished fourth and Klassy Kim, who won the stake last year, was fifth.

Grab The Prize, timed in 1:16 4/5 on a track listed as good, paid $14.80 and earned $66,900 for her owner, Ernie Auerbach. Vienna’s other winners on the card--Kaafih Homm and Native Russian--also were longshots.

Grab The Prize won for the fifth time in 16 starts.

She is winless in four starts on grass, but Vienna said he was prepared to run her regardless of the surface.

“Alex gave her a really great ride,” Vienna said. “The way he’s been going, you have to be happy to get a rider like him. The only thing I did wrong was that I didn’t enter more horses.”