Howbeit

Howbeit won his fourth career start in September 2019 at Los Alamitos. The son of Dubai Golden Shaheen winner Secret Circle crafted a decent but unspectacular career with wins in claiming races and occasional appearances in stakes on the California circuit before being claimed by new owners and trainer Mark Glatt in February 2021 off of a win in a 5 ½-furlong sprint.

After that, Howbeit made five consecutive starts in allowance optional claiming races, and rounded into good form with two runner-up finishes followed by two open-length wins during summer 2021. He tried graded stakes company in the Pat O’Brien Stakes in August, but finished sixth in that Grade 2 event and did not race again until July 2022.

Back for a 5-year-old campaign, Howbeit lost his rider in his first start – a stakes at stakes races at Pleasanton – and then finished ninth in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes. He followed with a much better effort when third by a neck in a six-furlong Del Mar allowance optional claiming race, setting him up for a breakthrough effort.

Sent off at 6.20-1 odds in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes Oct. 1 at Santa Anita Park, Howbeit closed furiously under Mike Smith through the center of the track and edged 2020 race winner by a nose to score his first stakes win.

Howbeit is out of the unraced El Corredor mare Emerlaude and is from the family of several stakes winners including Grade 2 winners Sightseeing and Living Vicariously and Grade 3 winner With Anticipation.