For much of the summer, Boss Sully was scheduled to be sent to Kentucky Downs for Saturday’s Grade 2 Turf Sprint and a chance to chase a $2 million prize.
As the race neared, however, trainer Brian Koriner reversed his decision. Boss Sully has remained in California for Saturday’s Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar, which is worth a mere $150,000.
Travel concerns and confusion regarding whether Boss Sully would gain a position in the field of 12 at Kentucky Downs factored into staying at Del Mar, Koriner said.
“It became a mess,” he said on Thursday. “We decided to stay home.”
The long-term objective remains the same: getting Boss Sully to the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1. The winners of the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint and Green Flash both earn automatic berths to the BC Turf Sprint.
Owned by the partnership of Rusty Brown, Alan Klein, and Philip Lebherz, Boss Sully is in the midst of his best year, winning 2 of 3 starts and earning $214,340. A 5-year-old gelding by Street Boss, Boss Sully has won allowance races for turf sprinters at Santa Anita in March and at Del Mar on July 31 this year. In between, he was a game second at 8-1 in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Turf Sprint at 5 1/2 furlongs on May 3, leading in the final furlong before losing by three-quarters of a length to Think Big.
Boss Sully won at five furlongs on July 31. In the Green Flash, Koriner envisions Boss Sully being quick from the gate and close to what should be a rapid pace in a full field of 12.
“We’re looking for the same trip – enough speed to stay out of trouble and not be in a duel,” Koriner said. “He’s very capable. That’s his best trip, firing from right off the pace.”
Chasing ultra-quick runners such as Book Smart and Coppola will give Boss Sully his best chance to hold off closers such as Motorious, who has won the last two runnings of the Green Flash, as well as the mare Queen Maxima, a three-time winner of turf sprints against females earlier this year for trainer Jeff Mullins.
“I don’t think we need to be up there with Book Smart,” Koriner said. “That doesn’t make much sense. Mullins’s filly is no pushover. No telling what she’ll do against the boys, as good as she has been.”
Koriner, 58, won the 2019 Green Flash with Mr Vargas. The stable is seeking its first graded stakes win since Ms Peintour won the Grade 3 Astra Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Santa Anita in January 2020.
A win by Boss Sully would prove to Koriner that the BC Turf Sprint is a reasonable target.
“If you run here and you don’t win, you may not run” in the Breeders’ Cup, he said. “It will get tougher in the Breeders’ Cup.”
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