Month: February 2023

The Chosen Vron Cruises To Victory Over Cal-Bred Rivals In Tiznow

In another thoroughly dominant performance, the Eric Kruljac-trained The Chosen Vron made every pole a winning one as he amassed his ninth career stakes victory by taking Monday's $100,000 Tiznow Stakes by 6 ½ lengths at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.  Ridden by Hector Berrios, the 5-year-old gelding by Vronsky got a flat mile in 1:36.16.

The Tiznow, for older horses, is part of the lucrative Golden State Series for eligible California-bred or sired horses.

Breaking like a shot from his outside post, The Chosen Vron was immediately in control in the run to the Club House turn and although pressed by eventual runner-up Leyas Candy to his outside, shook clear while in-hand at the top of the lane and was only running against the clock the final three sixteenths of a mile.

“It was a huge effort for him,” said Kruljac.  “Coming back off of the sprint (a neck victory in the six furlong Cal Cup Sprint on Jan. 7) where he used himself up probably 90 to 95 percent.  We gave him enough time to bounce back, and I think two turns is definitely his preference.

“He pretty much can do anything, which is really a blessing.  He isn't the best over deep tracks that are hard to get a hold of, or loose on top because he floats and if you don't break through it to a certain degree, you don't have any traction.”

A two-time graded stakes winner at age three, The Chosen Vron, in search of his fifth consecutive stakes win, all with Berrios, was off at 1-5 in a field of four and paid $2.60 and $2.10 with no show wagering.

“The trainer told me there was one other speed in the race and that was (Leyas Candy) and to play it by ear,” said Berrios.  “From the break, my horse showed a lot of class.  I just got into position and kept some pressure on the other horse.  Here in the United States, he is the best horse I have ridden on dirt.”

Owned by Sondereker Racing, LLC, Eric Kruljac, Robert Fetkin and Richard Thornburgh, The Chosen Vron, who is out of the Tiz Wonderful mare Tiz Molly, is now 14-10-1-2.  With the Tiznow's winner's share of $60,000, he increased his earnings to $672,678.

Leyas Candy, fresh off a huge statebred allowance win going a mile on Jan. 7, was second best with Juan Hernandez up and paid $3.00 while the third choice at 5-1.

Coalinga Road, who moved into contention at the rail leaving the half mile pole, couldn't run with the top two and finished 4 ¼ lengths behind Leyas Candy with John Velazquez up at odds of 7-2.

Fractions on the race were 23.60, 47.15, 1:10.57 and 1:23.31.

The winning owners are Sondereker Racing LLC, J. Eric Kruljac, Robert Fetkin, and Richard Thornburgh.

“We're really blessed to have this horse, we bred him ourselves,” said Thornburgh. “We didn't know much about breeding and what happens, we get The Chosen Vron, so we're very lucky.  When I saw on the turn that the four horse rider was pumping his arms a little bit and Chosen Vron was just going easy, that's when I was confident that he was going to do it.”

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Dr Ardito Prevails Over Bankit In Stretch-Long Duel In Haynesfield

Michael Dubb and Michael J. Caruso's Dr Ardito prevailed over a stubborn Bankit in a dramatic fight to the wire in Monday's eighth running of the $100,000 Haynesfield, a one-turn mile for older New York-breds, at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, N.Y.

Trained by four-time Eclipse Award winning trainer Chad Brown, Dr Ardito is now unbeaten in four starts going a one-turn mile at the Big A. The 5-year-old gray son of Liam's Map arrived at the Haynesfield on a string of five consecutive triumphs, the latter two taking place against open company. But he took his winning ways to new heights when capturing the Haynesfield in his stakes debut.

Stakes-winners Sea Foam and Wudda U Think Now battled on the front end of a strung out field with the former holding a narrow advantage through an opening quarter-mile in 22.84 seconds over the fast main track. Dr Ardito, with Manny Franco up, sat five lengths off the pace in fourth, just one path to the outside of Bankit in third. With the half elapsed in 46.18, Dr Ardito maintained his position as Wudda U Think Now gained slight control to the inside of Sea Foam as the field became more compact.

The two pacesetters began to retreat around the far turn as Bankit and Dr Ardito moved in tandem to the outside and started to duke it out passing the quarter pole. Franco was all out aboard Dr Ardito, but a stubborn Jose Lezcano-piloted Bankit was not going down without a fight. With both heads going up and down through the final furlong, Dr Ardito got his head in front at the right time, completing the journey in 1:37.86.

Bankit, the reigning New York-bred champion older dirt male, finished 7 3/4 lengths ahead of third-place finisher Full Moon Fever, with Wudda U Think Now and Sea Foam completing the order of finish.

Franco, who has been aboard Dr Ardito for all seven of his career starts, said familiarity with the winning machine was beneficial.

“I know the horse pretty well so I know when I ask him, he's going to be there for me,” said Franco, who won the 2017 Haynesfield aboard Send It In. “I knew the pace was hot in front of me and at that point the horse to beat was going to be Bankit, so I had to follow him. When I had the chance, I went around him and I asked my horse because I knew it was him and me. I went a little early, but I think that was the right move.”

A second-out graduate in April 2021 over the local going, Dr Ardito did not run again until the following February on the same surface where he defeated state-bred winners. He triumphed once more at Aqueduct over a muddy main track in April before stretching out to a 1 1/16 miles to defeat open allowance company in May at Belmont Park. His last effort came off an eight-month layoff, when defeating stablemate Nabokov by a head in a local open company optional claimer on January 19.

Dubb, who named Dr Ardito after his doctor of 30 years, credited Brown for patient handling of his newly crowned stakes winner.

“He has a ton of heart. Chad has managed this horse incredibly well,” said Dubb. “You have to be patient. I had in my mind if this race didn't go, we'd be in the 3X here today. Fortunately, it did go and all worked out well. He's had ankle [issues], but we've given him plenty of time. We gelded him a long way back and that may have helped him. He's sound now. Chad is never in a rush.”

Returning $3.70 for a $2 win wager as the post time favorite, Dr Ardito enhanced his lifetime record to 7-6-1-0 and bankroll to $284,600, cashing $55,000 from the Haynesfield win.

Bred in the Empire State by Fred W. Hertrich, III and John D. Fielding, Dr Ardito is out of the Indian Charlie mare Delightfully So – a half-sister to four-time graded stakes winning millionaire Delightful Kiss and graded stakes-winner Delightful Mary. He was bought for $95,000 out of the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Preferred New York-bred Yearling Sale.

Live racing resumes Friday at the Big A with an eight-race card. First post is 1:20 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of the Aqueduct winter meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the best way to bet every race of the Aqueduct Racetrack winter meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

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View From The Eighth Pole: In Baffert-Churchill Battle, There Are No Winners

Can both sides in a dispute be wrong?

In a word, yes.

Watching the long, drawn-out legal battle between Churchill Downs Inc. and Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is both painful and tiresome. It's painful because of the way it has taken some of the joy away from what is one of the most exciting times of the racing year: the run-up to the Triple Crown. It's tiresome because of the never-ending nature of the fight between two outsized egos that began following Medina Spirit's positive test for the corticosteroid betamethasone after the colt's first-place finish – and subsequent disqualification – in the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

A quick summary.

One week after registering what would have been an unprecedented seventh victory for Baffert in the Kentucky Derby, word leaked out that Medina Spirit failed a drug test. Baffert flew from California to Kentucky and held a press conference at his barn to deny that Medina Spirit had ever been treated with that drug. He then went on an extraordinarily misguided national television media tour, blaming something called cancel culture, among other things, but never accepting responsibility himself.

“We live in a different world now,” Baffert said during an interview on Fox News. “This America is different, and it was like a cancel culture kind of a thing.”

Baffert was referring to the fact that Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen took an immediate step to exclude him indefinitely from their properties when officials there learned of the failed test result. The ban was eventually set at two years, which would effectively keep Baffert out of the Kentucky Derby in 2022 and '23.

This was, after all, the second time in less than a year that a Baffert horse had tested positive for the same drug in a major race under the Twin Spires. The previous failed test was for the 3-year-old filly Gamine, who was disqualified from a third-place finish in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks. He had three other failed drug tests in about a year's time that Baffert blamed on members of his barn staff for urinating in a stall or wearing pain patches that somehow got into the system of two horses.

A few days after learning of the positive test and denying that Medina Spirit had been treated with betamethasone, Baffert discovered that his veterinarian had prescribed an ointment containing the drug to treat a skin rash. That discovery should have taken minutes, not days. The defense put forth by Baffert's legal team was that it was okay to test positive for the medication if it wasn't injected and instead was applied topically. That argument didn't work.

Baffert fought the disqualification of Medina Spirit from the Kentucky Derby, and lost. He fought the 90-day suspension handed him by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, and lost. He fought the two-year exclusion from Churchill Downs properties, and lost.

With each revival of legal arguments by his attorneys, more and more people began saying “enough already.” Baffert isn't doing himself any favors with this prolonged fight, and he's not helping the game, either.

But it's not like Churchill Downs Inc. and its management team are sympathetic figures. Look at the way they've treated people in the Illinois Thoroughbred industry, pulling the rug out from under them with the sale or Arlington Park, or how they've bullied Daily Racing Form off their properties. It's not a company that gives you warm and fuzzy feelings.

From the outset, it was clear that Churchill Downs banned Baffert over fears that he was damaging the most profitable racing brand in their portfolio of racetracks and casinos: the Kentucky Derby. Churchill officials, hoping to protect that brand, moved too soon with their punishment, rather than waiting for the board of stewards to investigate and do their job. What they seem to have forgotten is that no one individual has done more to popularize the Derby over the last 25 years than Baffert.

With just over 10 weeks until the May 6 Kentucky Derby, Baffert has an embarrassment of riches in the 3-year-old ranks, including Arabian Knight, the No. 1 horse on many Top 10 Derby prospect lists. The best of those horses are in the process of being transferred to former Baffert assistant Tim Yakteen, who saddled a pair of former Baffert runners in last year's Derby.

If one or more horses from Baffert's barn earn qualifying points and run in this year's Kentucky Derby while under Yakteen's care, they can be immediately switched back to Baffert's barn for the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. If Churchill Downs is thinking “out of sight, out of mind,” when it comes to Baffert and the Derby, they are sadly mistaken. Baffert will be the story on the first Saturday in May, whether he's physically at Churchill Downs or not. It's going to be messy and won't do the Derby brand or the sport any good.

Much of this could have been avoided if both Baffert and Churchill Downs had gathered all the fact and allowed cooler heads to prevail, rather than engaging in a scorched earth war of words through the media and legal system. No one is coming out of this looking good.

That's my view from the eighth pole.

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