AURORA — Danzip won’t go undefeated.
After winning his first five career races, including three stakes races earlier in the Arapahoe Park meeting, the 3-year-old Colorado-bred gelding finished second Sunday to Cheatin a Little in the $31,050 Colorado Derby.
Danzip, a 3-5 favorite, was in front for much of the 1 1/16-mile race, but Cheatin a Little went by in midstretch and won by four lengths.
A California-bred gelding, Cheatin a Little was the second choice, at 4-1. He was shipped to Arapahoe Park after finishing second in a $50,000 stakes race at SunRay Park in Farmington, N.M., and winning two of his seven starts over the winter at Turf Paradise in Phoenix.
After the race, Keith Grinolds of Loma, near Fruita, who co-owns Danzip with his wife, Mindy, and Ted Betz, was philosophical, pointing out that conditions of the race had Danzip carrying 124 pounds, Cheatin a Little with 118.
“He ran a good race. He just got beat,” Grinolds said of Danzip. “I think he just got tired. Six pounds at a mile and a sixteenth is a lot.”
He said Danzip soon would be shipped to Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., but would return to Arapahoe Park next year.
“What we’re going to do is put him back to sprinting six furlongs, back to his good distance,” Grinolds said.
