The Chosen Vron after winning the 2023 Grade I Bing Crosby © Benoit Photo
It’s the summer of 2023 and The Chosen Vron is about to run in the biggest race of his life. The son of the late sire Vronsky had just spent the last year dominating the Cal-bred ranks, winning seven races in a row, all stakes, both on the dirt and on the turf.
He is a big, shiny chestnut with a white blaze on his nose and prominent white stockings on three of his four legs. His stride is so fluid it’s like he’s not even trying. Yet every opponent he’s faced during the wonderful run dating back to September of 2022 has been unable to catch him.
So with nothing else to prove at the Cal-bred level, his connections decided to try him in open company. Not just any open company but against the top sprinters on the grounds in the G1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar. A formidable group led by 2020 G1 Del Mar Futurity and 2021 Bing Crosby champion Dr. Schivel; Anarchist, who would come back a month later and win the G2 Pat O’Brien at Del Mar; G2 Triple Bend winner Spirit of Mekena and cagey veteran C Z Rocket.
There also was defending champion American Theorem and talented invaders Sibelius and Hoist the Gold. While the public was supportive, they were also a bit skeptical, sending The Chosen Vron off at odds of 9/2.
A full field of 12 horses loaded into the gate, The Chosen Vron walking into stall number four. After a perfect break, he found himself behind the front runners stalking the pace. Perfect until they hit the turn and one of the leaders backed out suddenly causing jockey Hector I. Berrios to alter course. Undeterred, The Chosen Vron handled it beautifully and continued his run to the front.
He split horses at the top of the lane and joined five others in the front, two of which backed out by mid-stretch leaving four lined up across the track. They dueled to the sixteenth pole where The Chosen Vron poked his white blaze in front and then, showing his tenacious side, he held on in a driving finish, just a neck separating the top three runners.
The winners circle filled with jubilant owners, family friends and stable workers. In the middle of it all stood a 70-year-old man wearing a yellow jacket and blue jeans who, in his quiet way, was soaking it all in. His horse had not just won a Grade I race, but a ‘Win & You’re In’ to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. J. Eric Kruljac and The Chosen Vron had climbed out of the Cal-bred ranks and up to the pinnacle of horse racing.
J. Eric Kruljac © Benoit Photo
J. Eric Kruljac is the epitome of a horseman. Born in San Jose in 1953, he was one of nine children. The ‘J’ stands for Joseph, his paternal grandfather’s name. He was raised in Phoenix, Arizona and like the swallows returning to Capistrano every year, the Kruljacs would load up two cars and drive to Carmel Valley in central California every summer to the ranch of Eric’s maternal grandfather, Walter Markham, nestled in the hills west of Highway 101 between Carmel and Salinas. The Kruljac clan would live on the ranch and help out with the chores.
“My grandfather was a cattle breeder,” Kruljac explains. “He raised purebred Hereford seedstock. He was also a produce broker. He always had a few broodmares and raced horses. His trainer, Buster Millerick, is in the Hall of Fame. I got the racing bug from my grandfather. He would take us to the races. At the end of summer, when it was time to go back to school, we’d pack up and go back to Phoenix.”
That’s where his father had his business.
“My dad also became a produce broker,” Kruljac recalls. “With the help of my grandfather, he lined up a deal to run a brokerage out of Phoenix and he did very well with that. Basically, he built relationships with growers and large food chains. Brokers barter out a price for what they’re going to get for a box of produce. He dealt mostly with lettuce. “
Kruljac went to Central High School in north-central Phoenix where he did well and earned a football scholarship to Arizona State University in Tempe.
“I was a legend in my own mind,” Kruljac says in jest. “I played for two years and then destroyed my knee and that was the end of my football career. It was actually a good thing.”
His dreams of playing in the NFL dashed, Kruljac had to make a living. So, he became an investigator of workman’s comp claims.
“I came out of college and worked for an outfit and then I went out on my own,” he says. “At one point I had seven-or-eight investigators in the field. We would film people and monitor their schedules because a lot of people would fake injuries and then work on the side.”
It was during this period that Kruljac began dabbling in horses.
“I got a broodmare in Arizona and moved to a small ranch,” Kruljac notes. “We had a few foals there.”
After several years, Kruljac grew tired of the investigating business and went all in on the horses.
“I started buying horses,” he remembers. “My older brother had a trainer’s license and he trained them at first. Then he dropped out of it and I stepped in. I totally shut down the investigating agency by my late 20s and early 30s.
“I had partners with a lot of the horses and I’d train them,” Kruljac continues. “We had some rocky moments. We would race in the winter time (at Turf Paradise) in Phoenix and a couple times we went to Northern California in the summer. We also went to Del Mar.”
The first time he brought horses to the seaside oval was in 1988. In just his second race he notched a victory with a maiden named Tatt Man. He averaged about a half dozen races every meet for five years but failed to post another winner and finally chose to stay in Arizona and run at tracks in Prescott and Flagstaff. He returned to Del Mar in 1996, upped his participation to over 20 races a meet, and has been a fixture at the track ever since.
“Pretty early on I went from getting the partners going and I became kind of a manager,” Kruljac says. “I loved the breeding part of it and I always had a few broodmares. Not many trainers go in that direction. But I was attracted to the breeding, being someone who selects the mares and the stallions they’re going to; from the ground up.”
Kruljac’s interest in horses began at an early age.
“When I was probably 4-or-5 years old,” Kruljac states, “my grandfather would get the horses for us to ride on the ranch. Then it (the horse bug) hit me at 12 years old. I began reading a lot of the books that my grandfather had saved over time about horses and the great breeders. It dominated my interest, and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. It’s a total privilege to find something you love and make a living out of it instead of working at something you’re not interested in. “
Kruljac had his share of success before The Chosen Vron came along. He won the G1 Test at Saratoga in 2005 with another Cal-bred name Leave Me Alone. She eventually sold as a broodmare prospect for $1 million. He won the 2000 G3 Yerba Buena at Golden Gate with Gleefully and another of Kruljac’s fillies, Bauble Queen, won the 2012 G2 Robert Frankel at Santa Anita He won the 2015 G3 Wilshire with Blingismything and the 2020 G2 San Antonio with Kiss Today Goodbye.
Kruljac has won six stakes at Del Mar. Gleefully won him the 2000 CTT & TOC Handicap; Centerofattention won the 2003 Solana Beach and La Nez captured the 2010 Fleet Treat. His last three stakes victories were won by The Chosen Vron. Not bad for a trainer and breeder of a small operation.
“Just a handful, four or five,” Kruljac says of the number of broodmares he now owns in partnership. “Initially we had them at Harris Ranch. Fabulous place with wonderful people handling things. I have pieces of three or four broodmares we’re breeding to Clubhouse Ride. That horse stands at Legacy Ranch so we’d move our mares up there to breed and raise the foals there.”
Legacy Ranch is about an hour drive from Sacramento outside Clements, California at the base of the Sierra foothills.
Kruljac has four children, all grown and out of the house. One of his sons is also a trainer. Ian Kruljac has enjoyed the taste of success. In 2016, Ian took the first horse he ever trained on his own, Finest City, and won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Which brings us back to The Chosen Vron who was foaled on March 28, 2018 at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, California.
“He was a pretty colt from day one,” Kruljac boasts. “It was really sad that Vronsky passed because it looked like it worked between the mare (Tiz Molly) and Vronsky. They produced more than one nice horse.”
He owned the mare in partnership with John Sondereker, Dick Thornburgh and Bob Fetkin, the same group he partners with in ownership of The Chosen Vron.
“Early in his career he had problems,” Kruljac recalls of his star. “He was easy to break, he did everything right. But he was slow in developing. We had to give him some time, let him grow up.”
The Chosen Vron broke his maiden at first asking, his only race as a 2-year-old in 2020. He came back and won four of his six races as a 3-year-old, including a couple of graded stakes, the G3 Laz Barrera and the G3 Affirmed.
“Way back in the beginning we had to stop on him,” Kruljac says,” and now we’re being paid dividends. He’s been consistent as can be. We’ve backed off on him a couple of times each year and he seems to come back off the freshening and gives us honest and thrilling performances. He just has a great mind to him. He’s extremely competitive. I know he knows what he’s doing when he kicks in that extra gear.”
He only raced five times in 2022 but won three of them, including the E.B. Johnston at Los Alamitos which started The Chosen Vron’s eight-race win streak that led into the 2023 Breeders’ Cup. He would finish fifth in the Sprint.
“He was kind of covered up,” Kruljac remembers. “He might have had a little trouble getting out. I think he was behind a couple of horses and when they took off he didn’t have his customary kick. I think he was a few lengths better, a few numbers faster than some of his races but that comes with the competition. I think possibly he felt like he was surrounded.”
Three or four days after the Breeders’ Cup Kruljac says he couldn’t keep The Chosen Vron in his stall
“He was jumping around and playing,” Kruljac contends. “His coat was gleaming. He’s always been happy training. Always been into the bit and still is.”
He was so full of himself, Kruljac entered The Chosen Vron back with his friends in Cal-bred company two weeks after the Breeders’ Cup and won the $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes at Del Mar. It was the start of a new, six-race win streak, capped by a victory and successful defense of his title in the 2024 G1 Bing Crosby.
The Chosen Vron winning the 2024 Grade I Bing Crosby © Benoit Photo
“I’ve had some good horses,” Kruljac states. “But none of them as consistent as him, just an incredible animal. He almost trains himself and he loves to run.”
And the story will continue in 2025. Kruljac hopes to have his prized student ready to roll in the Middle East in Saudi Arabia or Dubai. For now, The Chosen Vron has been turned out for a few months due to a small issue in his leg detected by the veterinarians in the lead up to this year’s Breeders’ Cup. It forced Kruljac to scratch the gelding from the race.
“What a blessing this horse is,” Kruljac says. “I’m in the twilight of my career. What a way to go out with a horse like this. It’s been the highlight of my life to work with the horses. I’m not totally ready to retire but I’m getting a lot closer. If I do I’ll probably back up and become a bloodstock agent again and work with my son Ian.”
Kruljac realizes the races in the Middle East, the Breeders’ Cup races, and even the Bing Crosbys, are tough races for The Chosen Vron. But Kruljac will tell you without hesitation: “I wouldn’t trade places with anyone.”