The Chosen Vron © Benoit Photo
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.