ARCADIA, Calif. – The win payoffs are going down while the earnings are going up for two popular geldings at the top of their game.
Odds-on favorites The Chosen Vron and Kings River Knight scored repeat victories Saturday at Santa Anita in the same Cal-bred stakes they won a year ago. Wagering was available for bettors who enjoy short prices.
The Chosen Vron ($2.10) cruised in the $98,000 Thor’s Echo. He paid $3.40 in last year’s six-furlong race. Kings River Knight ($2.40) wired the $102,000 Crystal Water. He paid $3.60 winning the turf mile a year ago.
The Chosen Vron made it look easy in the Thor’s Echo. The millionaire gelding scored his 18th win from 23 starts with a 2 1/4-length victory over early pacesetter Sawasdee. Moose Mitchell and California Tiger completed the order of finish in the four-horse field.
Big City Lights, four-time runner-up to The Chosen Vron, scratched from the race and is expected to run June 1 in the Grade 2, $200,000 Triple Bend Stakes.
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The only worry Saturday for The Chosen Vron’s trainer Eric Kruljac and jockey Hector Berrios was the inside post. “The break is what worries you the most,” Kruljac said. “The break was clean, and he was in a good position the whole way.”
“I wanted to go outside,” Berrios said, and he did. Sawasdee set the pace and The Chosen Vron moved outside to press from second position. Berrios said “he made everything easy. In the stretch, he was looking around, he was comfortable.”
The Chosen Vron, by Vronsky, was not even blowing as he left the winner’s circle. “I’m sure (the race) didn’t take a lot out of him,” Kruljac said. The Chosen Vron won in 1:09.37; he won the Thor’s Echo last year in 1:09.58.
With his 18th win from 23 starts, The Chosen Vron has earned $1,419,678. He was bet like he could not lose. The win pool of $135,038 included $112,418 on The Chosen Vron, creating a rare minus pool of $3,838. The place pool of $301,648 included $281,290 on The Chosen Vron. The minus place pool was $51,620.
Upcoming options for The Chosen Vron include the $100,000 Bertrando Stakes on June 22 at Los Alamitos, though his main summer objective is the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on July 27 at Del Mar. The Chosen Vron won the Bing Crosby a year ago.
Kings River Knight also looked every bit a cinch in the Crystal Water. The lone front-runner in the turf mile, the John Sadler trainee popped the gate under Juan Hernandez and never looked back.
“I told John, this horse won the race out of the gate,” Hernandez said. "He broke so sharp. He broke two lengths in front of everybody.”
From there, the race was effectively over. Kings River Knight set an easy half-mile in 48.44, and ran his final half-mile in 47.31 to win by 1 1/2 lengths in 1:35.75. He won the stakes last year in 1:34.55.
The order of finish was completed by Barely Funtional, Old Pal, Coalinga Road, Carmelita’s Man, Oubabe, None Above the Law, Passarando and Clouseau.
Kings River Knight, by Acclamation, has won 10 of 16 starts and earned $649,830. Sadler said the gelding “is a good honest horse and a good (worker), he trains well, and eats good. I would like to have 100 like him.”
For now, one more like him will have to do. Sadler trains the unraced 2-year-old Miles Finch, a Vronsky sibling to Kings River Knight expected to have his first breeze this coming week. Sadler said Miles Finch “looks good, he looks a lot like (Kings River Knight).”
Kings River Knight will target the Bertrando Stakes at Los Alamitos for his next start.
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