Trainer Joe Orseno is bullish on Bucchero and on Friday he will saddle one of the stallion’s promising 3-year-old fillies, Etrurian, in the featured eighth race at Gulfstream Park. She goes in a five-furlong allowance for 3-year-old fillies on turf that drew nine, including fellow Bucchero daughter Super Freaky Girl, stakes winner Welcome Back, and sharp maiden winner Next Right Thing,
Etrurian has won her last two starts by a combined margin of six lengths. She was a maiden special weight winner July 5 at Gulfstream with a Beyer Speed Figure of 86 and came back and won an allowance with a Beyer of 77. Both starts were on Tapeta. Orseno bought into the filly, which he now co-owns with Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt, prior to those starts..
“I really liked that she was by Bucchero,” he said. “I’ve got quite a few Buccheros. I watched her run her first race and I didn’t think she ran that bad and I just pursued her because again, I really like the stallion. I have quite a few of them.”
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Orseno trains some of the Bucchero runners for multiple owners of the stallion, the current leading general sire in New York who has among his offspring Grade 1 winner Book’em Danno. Orseno sees various qualities in Bucchero’s offspring that he has in training, among them stakes winners Mattingly and Beauty of the Sea.
“I must have 10 or 11 in my barn and they’re not all the same by any means,” Orseno said. “They seem to be turf or Tapeta, but you will get [some] that run on the dirt. So, they run on just about anything, but they seem to move up on the turf and Tapeta.
“With the stallion moving to New York and with New York putting in an all-weather track, I’m hoping that in a couple of years it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The race Friday will be the turf debut for Etrurian, whose sire was a multiple Grade 2 winner sprinting on the grass.
“I’m really hoping she takes to the turf the way she took to the Tapeta and I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t,” said Orseno.
Edgard Zayas, who has been aboard Etrurian for each of her last two starts, has the mount again from post 2. The filly has wired her rivals in each of her last two starts, and has a chance to slip away, although Orseno noted Super Freaky Girl has good speed, too. She’s also 2 for 2 on Tapeta.
“There’s a little speed in there,” he said. “There’s actually another Bucchero in there that’s a pretty nice filly.
“I think if we take to the turf, I hope this will help [Etrurian] move on to the next level.”
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