The Chosen Vron © Benoit Photo
THE CHOSEN VRON IS TURNED OUT AFTER MINOR ISSUE DETECTED
The Chosen Vron has been turned out for several months after an issue was found in his ankle soon after he was scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last month. That’s according to trainer J. Eric Kruljac, who says his big chestnut gelding is expected to fully recover with a little time off and will return to the races next year.
“We’ll take it one step at a time,” Kruljac contends. “We’ll give him the four months off and then bring him back. I feel pretty good that he’ll come back the same horse.”
The Chosen Vron is California’s reigning Horse of the Year and a fan favorite. The 6-year-old son of Vronsky has won 19 of his 25 starts including win streaks of eight races and six races. Between September of 2022 and September of this year he had won 14 of his last 16 races. One of those losses was a fifth-place finish in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. The other came in his last race, a runner-up finish to Raging Torrent in the G2 Pat O’Brien at Del Mar on August 24. But he ran well and nothing was going to dissuade his connections from pointing him to another try in the Breeders’ Cup.
Then the veterinarians detected a slight gimp in his gait 10 days before the big race and they put him on the vet’s list. A horse must stay on the list for 14 days then pass a rigorous string of tests before he’s cleared. It forced Kruljac to scratch The Chosen Vron and tests up at Santa Anita soon revealed the issue.
“He’s going to be turned out for four months,” Kruljac says. “He had a very minor problem, one he probably ran with; so minute you could barely pick it up on an MRI. No surgery required, just four months off to let the body heal naturally and then he’ll be back.
“It’s a little blemish, not even as big as an eraser on a pencil,” Kruljac continued. “The races he ran in the Pat O’Brien and the Bing Crosby he had that probably going on then.”
At the time of the scratch, Kruljac said he might take The Chosen Vron “out of the country” and he says they’re still mulling over the idea of running in Saudi Arabia or Dubai.
“We may still do that,” Kruljac insists. “Whatever I voiced out loud probably didn’t have a lot thought behind it. Just frustration. But everybody has to do what they have to do. Life in the big city.”
The Chosen Vron is turned out at Trifecta Farm in Bonsall.
“He deserves a little rest,” Kruljac reveals. “Three of the four partners live in close proximity (to Bonsall) so they can go out and visit him. The other guy, Bob Fetkin, lives in St. Pete Beach, Florida. He and his wife Sheila just lost their house in the hurricane. They were renting an apartment on the eighth floor of a high rise and a crane on a building adjacent from his apartment broke off and crashed into his apartment. They took it in stride and they’re safe.”
Kruljac has moved his residence down to Del Mar so he’ll be making a few trips out to Bonsall to see his star. He also hopes all goes well and The Chosen Vron will be back to defend his title in the G1 Bing Crosby next summer.
PUSHINESS BIDS FOR THIRD DEL MAR STAKES WIN IN BETTY GRABLE
The lady Cal-breds get their shot in the stakes spotlight Sunday in the $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes at Del Mar. Seven fillies and mares will go to post for the 7-furlong sprint on the main track.
It marks the return of Pushiness to the Cal-bred ranks and to Del Mar. The 3-year-old daughter of Kantharos has run her past two races in open company entry level allowances, one on turf at Del Mar in August and the other on the dirt at Santa Anita in October. She got rundown after setting the pace in the turf outing, but held on to wire the field last out.
Now trainer Michael McCarthy has her back with her Cal-bred friends where she has enjoyed success in the past.
“Obviously facing older is always a challenge,” McCarthy acknowledges. “But she’s trained well and seems to like the racetrack so we bring her over there with a little bit of confidence.”
As a 2-year-old she won the CTBA. Stakes at Del Mar in 2023 and returned to the seaside oval this summer and won the Fleet Treat Stakes. In both victories she went wire-to-wire.
“I don’t know if she has to be on the front end to win,” McCarthy notes. “But I’d be a little bit concerned if she was not on the lead.”
A couple of horses plan to take their best shots at Pushiness.
Big Summer is coming off of a runner-up finish to Grand Slam Smile, California’s Top Juvenile Filly in 2023. She’s raced 19 times and finished in the money in 17 of those races, winning five. Her last victory was an open-company, entry-level allowance race at Del Mar this past summer. She’s been running on the grass for nearly a year but trainer Carla Gaines is switching the daughter of Mr. Big back to dirt in the Betty Grable. Her last win on the dirt came during last year’s Bing Crosby Season.
Irish Wahine is also coming into the race off of an impressive outing. She ran second, at 25-1, in the G3 Chillingworth last out. It was just eight months ago the daughter of Grazen was running for a $10,000 tag at Santa Anita. After several claims she landed in the barn of Librado Baracio who decided to step her up into graded stakes company this summer. She finished sixth in the G2 Great Lady M at Los Alamitos in July and then fourth in the G3 Rancho Bernardo at Del Mar in August.
Baracio was finally rewarded for his confidence in the filly with Irish Wahine’s runner-up finish to One Magic Philly.
Safa enters the Betty Grable off of a win and the hard-knocking Chismosa will race for the 11th time this year. She won both the CTBA and the Generous Portion at the 2022 summer meet at Del Mar. The daughter of Clubhouse Ride ran in last year’s Betty Grable and finished fifth.
The Betty Grable, named after the famous actress and pin-up girl from the 40s and 50s, is the eighth race on the nine-race card Sunday. Probable post is 4 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds: Roberta’s Love (Antonio Fresu, 15-1); Chismosa (Tiago Pereira, 4-1); Big Summer (Hector I. Berrios, 2-1); Pushiness (Umberto Rispoli, 8/5); Safa (Kazushi Kimura, 9/2); Back on Track (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 20-1), and Irish Wahine (Kyle Frey, 15-1).
FALL MEET BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN DEL MAR
The Breeders’ Cup people are out of the pool. They’ve packed up their belongings and gone home, leaving behind the quiet serenity of the fall Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar. It can be so tranquil on a typical non-race day on the backside the only sound you may hear is the ping of a farrier’s hammer as he re-shoes another Thoroughbred.
That’s what makes the fall meet at Del Mar so unique. The hustle and bustle of the summer meet has been replaced by a more laid back atmosphere, especially on the backside where the number of horses staying on the grounds is considerably smaller than the summer meet.
“On race days it goes up to 350 or so,” racing secretary David Jerkens says. “Typically it’s around 270 or 280 so it fluctuates. On a Monday or Tuesday it will be at its lowest number and then Wednesdays the horses start to arrive so the number builds up.”
Del Mar is racing three days a week during the fall. Many trainers choose to stay at their base camps at Santa Anita or Los Alamitos rather than pack everything up and move their whole operation south for just a month. They do it in the summer because it’s a longer meet.
“It varies by individual trainer and individual horse,” Jerkens points out. “Trainers will mention they like to school a particular horse or they like to get to the particular surroundings earlier. But there are some that just ship the morning of the race so it depends on a particular horseman and on a particular horse.”
The Bing Crosby season is in its 11th year. It was created in 2014 when Del Mar absorbed the racing dates previously used by Hollywood Park which closed the year before.
“It’s always been primarily a ship-in meet,” Jerkens notes. “For one example, last year Phil D’Amato brought his whole barn and obviously he made the most starts of any trainer on the grounds. He didn’t ship his entire arsenal this fall. It is a bit unsettling when you’re relying on the ship for all of your races.”
The Breeders’ Cup this year brought hundreds of horses to Del Mar but most shipped out last week and only a few were left behind to run in the Fall Turf Festival later this month.
“There are some bump that we receive,” Jerkens acknowledges. “George Weaver left his filly from the Goldikova (Sacred Wish) and Jack Sisterson left his filly (Aspen Grove) as well. But it (the Breeders’ Cup) really is separate for the most part. There are horses here that may stick around but it’s a minimal number.”
The field sizes and the number of horses that will race at Del Mar this fall is expected to remain among the best in the country.
“The numbers are where I thought they would be after two weeks of entries,” Jerkens contends. “We knew it was not going to be ‘write a book and watch the races fill.’ We knew we were going to have to work at it and so far it’s been pretty much what we expected.”
COOLING OUT: A noticeable absence on the card yesterday and today: Jockey Juan Hernandez is serving a two-day suspension for a riding crop infraction on opening day. He’s expected back Sunday to resume defense of his Bing Crosby Season riding title… Turf training resumes at Del Mar tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. For years Del Mar was the only place in California providing training on the grass this time of year. That’s no longer the case now that Santa Anita has installed an all-weather track…This is always a nice item to find on the worktab. A horse named Red Diamond worked 3 furlongs in :37.40 Wednesday at Del Mar for trainer Ron McAnally. The Hall of Fame conditioner still has his hands in the mix at 92, albeit a smaller operation these days.