Brant © Benoit Photo
BRANT LEADS BAFFERT BRIGADE INTO G1 DEL MAR FUTURITY SUNDAY
A while back trainer Bob Baffert’s 2-year-olds began piling up impressive wins almost every race day at Del Mar. As the meet progressed, more and more of his juveniles were posting eye-catching performances on the racetrack. These were no ordinary horses. One in particular had been purchased for $3 million.
That horse, Brant, will be running Sunday in the 78th renewal of the G1 Del Mar Futurity, the feature on closing day of the Del Mar summer meet. Brant has run once in his career, breaking his maiden by 5 ¼ lengths at Del Mar in July.
“He’s going from 5 ½ (furlongs) to seven,” Baffert says. “So far he’s been doing everything we’ve asked of him.”
The son of Gun Runner was purchased in March by Amr Zedan at the Ocala Breeders Sale in Florida.
Of the six horses entered in the Futurity, four are out of the Baffert barn. Desert Gate is the only one of the four that is undefeated after two races. The son of Omaha Beach broke his maiden at Santa Anita in June then crushed his rivals in the G3 Best Pal at Del Mar last month, winning by 8 ¾ lengths.
“This horse has been very professional since day one,” Baffert notes. “His maiden race was really exceptional. He’s a beautiful horse.”
Baffert will also start Balboa, a son of Not This Time, who broke his maiden by 7 ¾ lengths last time out at Del Mar and Litmus Test, a winner first time out at Del Mar last month.
“It’s nice to have these horses,” Baffert contends. “That’s what we’re in the business for to win and compete at the top level.”
Baffert has won the Del Mar Futurity the past four years and a record 18 times total during his Hall of Fame career. He will not go it alone in this year’s Futurity. Trainer Doug O’Neill has entered two of his top juveniles in the race.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” O’Neill exclaimed when reminded of the task in front of him. “Both horses are training well.”
One of those horses, Civil Liberty, has yet to break his maiden. He finished second to Brant in his only start.
“He continues to progress and mature,” O’Neill says. “He’s breezing well. Antonio (Fresu) knows him well so we’re hoping we can get a little bit closer to Brant and some of the other Bafferts.”
Brigante is O’Neill’s other entry. He finished second in his debut followed by a distant third in the G3 Best Pal last out.
“He’s a big, good looking son-of-a-gun,” O’Neill states. “I’m glad Hector Berrios is sticking with him. He’ll give a good effort.”
The Del Mar Futurity is a stepping stone to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. It’s Race 4 on Sunday’s card. Probable post is 3 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail out with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Brigante (15-1); Brant (Flavien Prat, 1-1); Balboa (Kazushi Kimura, 6-1); Civil Liberty (9/2); Desert Gate (Juan Hernandez, 4-1) and Litmus Test (Tyler Gaffalione, 6-1).
SHIPPERS DROP IN FOR G3 DEL MAR JUVENILE TURF SUNDAY
Cross-country trips can be tough on people let alone horses. Hours on a cramped plane and the time change. Horses have been making the coast-to-coast journey for years so it’s nothing new when a Southern California horse boards a plane and travels 3,000 miles.
However, shipping 2-year-old horses, that’s a whole other challenge. Most are still learning the ropes out on the track let alone taking on the rigors of shipping. That’s not to say juveniles never travel. Come Breeders’ Cup, plenty will board a flight for San Diego.
Horseman have found that young horses with a strong constitution can handle the long-distance journeys and advancements in the practice of shipping have made it easier on a young horse. There are a few young shippers running in Del Mar’s final stakes race of the summer, Sunday’s G3 Juvenile Turf.
The morning line favorite, Hey Nay Nay, broke his maiden first time out at Santa Anita on the first of June. Afterward, trainer John Sadler and owners Hronis Racing decided to ship the son of No Nay Never to New Jersey and take a stab at the $100,000 Tyro Stakes at Monmouth Park.
“When you win early, like he did, there’s nothing available at Del Mar until the weekend after Labor Day,” trainer John Sadler points out. “With a colt that strong and healthy I can bring him down here and train him for six weeks or run him over there (at Monmouth), have another race in him then be ready for the one here.”
Sadler and Hronis were promptly rewarded by their decision to ship. Showing no ill effects from the trip back east, Hey Nay Nay crushed four other rivals and won by seven lengths.
“It’s still a big deal,” Sadler says about shipping 2-year-olds. “It’s tricky. We thought this horse had the personality to ship. He’s very calm. We thought he was capable of shipping over there. The running part you’re not worried about but with a lot of 2-year-olds you may not want to ship them across country for just their second start. But I thought he could do it.”
Caro Buono is one of two horses in the Juvenile Turf to ship in from overseas. He’s a French-bred now residing in the Leonard Powell stable at Del Mar.
“People who do it (ship horses) are professionals,” Powell says. “And actually, horses handle it very well. It’s amazing. A plastic bag flying around on the ground and they’ll be all over the place but getting on an airplane they act like they’ve been doing it all their life.
“99.9 percent of the time it’s very smooth,” Powell continues. “We take precautions. We make sure we keep them hydrated. What can happen when they ship is they develop ulcers so we give them prevention treatments. Most of the time you find out (if they can handle shipping) the first time you do it.”
Caro Buono is stretching out around two turns for the first time in the Juvenile Turf. He’ll be ridden by jockey Flavien Prat.
“He’s been here a month and a half now,” Powell notes. “The first couple of weeks he struggled a bit with the dirt surface we train on but the last couple of works have been a lot more forward and now he’s ready to show a good run on Sunday.”
Later Than Planned is the other shipper from across the pond. He flew from his native land of Ireland to Del Mar in June, found his spot in trainer Phil D’Amato’s barn and, when ready, went out and broke his maiden in his first U.S. start.
“I was very happy with his performance,” D’Amato says. “It was very professional. He got started and stopped a couple of times throughout the race and showed tactical speed and the ability to overcome adversity, all things I like to see in a 2-year-old.”
Another horse that has already shipped during his young racing career is Dirty Rich, who made the trip from Kentucky to trainer Peter Miller’s stable at Del Mar in late June. The son of Thousand Words broke his maiden by 5 ¼ in his first start at Del Mar. He’ll be stretching out and changing surfaces in Sundays race.
A full field of 14 will go to the gate for the G3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf, Race 9 on the 11-race closing day card. Probable post is 5:30 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail out with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Born to Rock (Kazushi Kimura, 20-1); Dirty Rich (Ruben Silvera, 5-1); Proletariat (Kyle Frey, 8-1); Plutarch (Juan Hernandez, 8-1); Hey Nay Nay (Hector I. Berrios, 4-1); Classico (Armando Ayuso, 30-1); Later Than Planned (Umberto Rispoli, 8-1); Conducted (Mike Smith, 12-1); Punto Forty (Antonio Fresu, 12-1); Oracle of Paradise (Diego Herrera, 20-1); Jalisco (Abel Lezcano, 30-1); Won For Lou (Tyler Gaffalione, 15-1); Caro Buono (6-1) and Love the Pressure (Assael Espinoza, 12-1).
LIBRADO BAROCIO: JUGGLING MOVIE MAKING WITH HORSE RACING
His reaction in the winner’s circle following his first ever Grade I victory is all you need to know about trainer/movie producer Librado Barocio. He’s devout, he’s a family man, he loves to make movies and he loves his horses.
“It’s a blessing,” Barocio stated as he walked into the winner’s circle after his horse Lovesick Blues rolled to a longshot win in the G1 Bing Crosby. ”I thank God for giving me this horse. To give me the opportunity to buy him. My barn, the grooms and the hot walkers, they work so hard and do a great job. Hey, man, a miracle is happening.”
That unexpected win lifted Barocio to heights he had never experienced in horse racing and paved the way to his first Breeders’ Cup. The Bing Crosby is a ‘Win and You’re In’ for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
“We’re gamblers,” Barocio continued in the winner’s circle. “You have to swing the bat to hit a grand slam.”
Barocio will never be on the same level as a Bob Baffert or Todd Pletcher when it comes to training horses. Not because he doesn’t have the know-how to be a good horseman because he does. It’s because he’s got so much else going on in his life. When he’s not training his small string of horses that make up his Mia Familia Stables, he’s up in Hollywood producing movies.
Like his training career, he has tasted the highs and lows of the movie industry. Some of his films have done quite well. “The Boyz Klub,” “U.S.S Indianapolis”and “Speed Kills” all were hits at the box office. He’s worked with actors like John Travolta, Kevin Hart, Jamie Foxx and Nicholas Cage. But Barocio will be the first to tell you, juggling movie making with racehorse training is difficult.
“It’s easier when we’re up in LA,” Barocio explains, “because I can go to the track in the morning and then I can go to my office right after. But here it’s hard. I’ll leave on Sunday night and miss Monday and Tuesday. Monday’s a walk day, Tuesday’s a jog day so those two days nothing is really happening. Then I try to get back here on Wednesday but when meetings happen it throws me off.”
Barocio is doing a pretty good job of juggling. Through last weekend at Del Mar, he had seven wins in 23 starts, a 61% clip, with five seconds and two thirds and earnings of $507,060. This year his barn has made $1,081,886, already second best in his career and closing in fast on his all-time mark of $1,274,670. He’s currently the leading owner by wins (6) at the meet.
“When you’re in it, it doesn’t seem really busy,” Barocio says about his hectic lifestyle. “It’s what I’ve been doing all my life. I think I’ve found a way to handle both worlds. I’m not too big but I’m not too small. Like here (at Del Mar) I have a good team. Up there I have a couple of really good partners who pick up the load when I’m not there.”
He’ll no doubt be spending a lot of time away from LA and at Del Mar at the end of October when it will be crunch time for his horse, Lovesick Blues, and preparations to run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. For now Barocio plans to train the horse up to the race.
“That’s what my gut tells me,” he says. “But if he gets too wound up in his stall then I’ll look for a race in mid-September, probably at Santa Anita. I don’t want to put him through the grind of traveling somewhere and getting tired. I’d rather just stay home.”
Barocio says the horse runs well fresh and he’s going by the numbers.
“He’s doing really well right now,” he contends. “I just didn’t want to come back too fast because he ran his best numbers, he ran a four on the sheets, in the Bing Crosby. Usually that means if you come back after that he’ll bounce. So I want to give him enough time. He’s an old guy (7). Give him time to come back to himself.”
Through it all, Barocio has a film in the works, one he’s anxious to finally get into production.
“I have a film that I had in my back pocket,” Barocio claims. “I had a deal with Sony and a story called the ‘Marvin Gaye Story.’ But we couldn’t get the music rights to his actual versions where he sang it. We could have recreated it with someone else but I decided if we can’t do it we’ll just put it on the backburner.
“(Last month) I’m up in LA and I have meetings with my partner and (actor) Blair Underwood,” Barocio adds. “Blair would be the star in it. I think with him behind it and the people he’s going to bring I think it’s got a great chance.”
COOLING OUT: Speedy Wilson, Cal-bred Champion 2-year-old and the winner of the Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar last month, will try open company for the first time Saturday in Race 8. Trainer Philip D’Amato has entered the son of Tough Sunday in an entry-level allowance race...After 29 days of racing at Del Mar this summer favorites are hitting at a whopping 41 percent…A couple of firsts in the same race Friday. Cagey Burglar hit at 10-1 in Race 3, the first win ever at Del Mar for both jockey Ricardo Jaime and trainer Ryan Bratcher…Trainer Peter Miller got a hat trick Friday, winning the first race with Opus Uno, Race 4 with Case Hit and the final race with We the Hobby…Jockey Mirco Demuro notched his seventh win of the meet on Brave Deb in Race 6 Friday. The Italian-born rider, who is giving Del Mar a try this summer, says it’s too early to say if he’s going to stay in Southern California but that he is definitely going to Santa Anita to ride the fall meet. He adds that he’s still a little sore from a fall he took during the G2 Pat O’Brien August 23rd but that he’s okay…Notable works on Saturday: Alpha Bella (4f, :48.60); Grand Slam Smile (4f, :49.40); Cavalieri (5f, 1:00.20); Johannes (5f, 1:00.00), and Mirahmadi (6f, 1:11.60). A total of 140 horses put in official works at Del Mar on Saturday.