The first half of The Chosen Vron’s 2024 season went just about perfectly. He launched a defense of his California-bred Horse of the Year title, as well as his unofficial ranking as the West Coast’s most popular active thoroughbred, by dominating four consecutive stakes at Santa Anita to run his latest winning streak to five races.
Now, as The Chosen Vron starts the second half of his season at Del Mar, he’s being asked to improve on perfection.
The 6-year-old gelding will try to repeat his greatest victory by winning the $400,000, Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes on Saturday, and then will gear up to try to fill the most glaring hole in his record by winning the $2 million, Grade I Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 2.
That the most important races of the The Chosen Vron’s career will take place at Del Mar is one reason Eric Kruljac, the horse’s 71-year-old trainer and part-owner, brimmed with confidence in a phone interview from the north San Diego County track this week.
“He loves this racetrack,” Kruljac said. “He prefers it to Santa Anita, although he runs good over everything. His work was just incredibly awesome the other day.”
Kruljac was referring to a workout Sunday clocked in 47 1/5 seconds for 4 furlongs, the fifth fastest of 180 works at the distance that morning and The Chosen Vron’s fastest since April.
It put The Chosen Vron on edge as he tries to join Kona Gold and four other horses as repeat winners of the Bing Crosby.
A year ago, the son of Vronsky and Tiz Molly went into the Bing Crosby as the 9-2 third choice behind favorite Dr. Schivel. Midway through the 6-furlong race, The Chosen Vron and jockey Hector Berrios had to steady when a longshot backed up ahead of them. That would have been too much for a less tenacious animal to overcome, but The Chosen Vron rallied between horses to win by a head over Anarchist and a neck over Dr. Schivel.
“It takes a special horse to do that,” Kruljac said.
The Chosen Vron will be favored Saturday, because nobody else in the field of nine comes close to matching his 18 wins in 23 starts – and 13 in his past 14 – and career earnings of $1,419,678.
But it’s no layup. Doug O’Neill entered two potential upsetters in Anarchist (Kazushi Kimura riding), back after last year’s near-miss, and Happy Jack (Edwin Maldonado), who battled The Chosen Vron before finishing second by three-quarters of a length in the Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita in April. Dan Blacker entered Straight No Chaser (Antonio Fresu), who’s dangerous if he runs back to swift victories at Oaklawn Park and Pimlico in 2023.
“He just needs to stay out of trouble,” said Kruljac, who expects The Chosen Vron “very likely will repeat his effort from last year.”
Even if The Chosen Vron doesn’t win Saturday, the plan is to take another crack at the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, in which Kruljac hopes he won’t repeat his effort from last year.
Sent off as the public’s 8-1 fifth choice at Santa Anita, The Chosen Vron ran fifth all the way and did something he rarely does, losing ground in the stretch to finish 5 1/4 lengths behind winner Elite Power.
Kruljac thinks he underprepared his star horse.
“I was a bit overconfident,” Kruljac said. “He came out of the Bing Crosby last year in good shape, and I erred on the side of caution. I take credit for that, or whatever.”
The trainer said he wouldn’t add a race to The Chosen Vron’s schedule in the 98 days between the Bing Crosby and the Breeders’ Cup.
“But I would do more with him than I did with him last year,” he said, meaning he’d crank up The Chosen Vron with “stiffer workouts.”
It’ll be a challenge either way. The Breeders’ Cup Sprint starting gate will be full of horses who can match The Chosen Vron’s class and speed. The 2023 Bing Crosby remains his only Grade I win, and his highest speed figures in 2024 rank him sixth (according to Equibase figures) or 12th (using Beyer figures) among horses running the sprint distances of less than one mile.
With horses who’ve demonstrated a nose for the finish line the way The Chosen Vron has, it’s tempting to toss numbers aside and get poetic. Kruljac does that when he talks about trying to repeat in the Bing Crosby, the race named for the entertainer and Del Mar founder. It turns out Crosby was Kruljac’s favorite actor, singer and dancer.
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“My horse, he dances like Bing,” Kruljac said, his grin audible over the phone.
The Chosen Vron tap-danced through the winter and spring, but now the music stops and more serious racing begins.
“We certainly didn’t scare anybody away,” Kruljac said of the Bing Crosby field. “We’ll just have to load our cannons and expect some stiff competition.”
Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at Twitter.com/KevinModesti.
