DEL MAR, Calif. – The starting lineup for the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Sprint lost one major contender but may have picked up another with the announcements this week that The Chosen Vron is out but Domestic Product is now under consideration for the race. The pair were among 15 horses pre-entered for the event Monday.
The news that The Chosen Vron was taken out of the Sprint on the advice of the Breeders’ Cup veterinary team late Tuesday afternoon came as a shock to many, not only eliminating one of the betting favorites for the race, but a fan favorite as well. The Chosen Vron, who finished fifth in the 2023 Sprint at Santa Anita, has won 19 of his 25 career starts, 18 of those victories coming in stakes.
The 6-year-old posted six straight wins, including a successful defense of his title in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby, since last year’s Breeders’ Cup before having the streak snapped when finishing second, beaten a neck by Raging Torrent, in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien here Aug. 24.
Several days earlier, trainer Chad Brown announced his intention of pre-entering Domestic Product in both the Dirt Mile, to be decided around two turns this year, and the six-furlong Sprint, with the former race still his first preference. Domestic Product won two races around two turns earlier in his career, although his two most recent victories have come at one turn, the Grade 3 Dwyer going a mile at Aqueduct in July and the seven-furlong H. Allen Jerkens, his first Grade 1 victory, at Saratoga on Aug. 24.
Domestic Product was one of two horses given second preference in the Sprint along with Mufasa, whose first preference also is the Dirt Mile.
Skelly remains the tepid 7-2 favorite on Daily Racing Form linemaker Brad Free’s odds for what looms a wide-open edition of the Sprint, with Nakatomi moving up to second choice at 4-1 in the absence of The Chosen Vron. Free listed Domestic Product at odds of 20-1 for the Sprint and 8-1 for the Dirt Mile.
◗ As expected, a trio of Japanese horses, Don Frankie, Meta Max, and Remake, were pre-entered for the Sprint. Steve Asmussen, who won the race in 2019 with Mitole, is the only trainer with multiple pre-entrants in this year’s renewal, Skelly and Gun Pilot.
The remainder of the field is likely to include Grade 1 winner Mullikin along with Raging Torrent, Federal Judge, Straight No Chaser, Bentornato, and Dr. Venkman, whose connections assigned the Sprint first preference over the Dirt Mile.
Trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Sprint a record five times, will be conspicuous by his absence this year. Baffert had been expected to be represented by the multiple Grade 1-placed 3-year-old Prince of Monaco, whose name was surprisingly not among the horses pre-entered for the race.
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