Things are breaking just right for the connections of The Chosen Vron, who won the Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes over the weekend at Del Mar and seems to be getting better with age.
Break number one: The only reason The Chosen Vron ran in the Bing Crosby was because the other race that trainer J. Eric Kruljac had in mind was on the turf. Kruljac opted to try open company on the heels of seven consecutive races against state breds and the victory gave The Chosen Vron an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 4.
“He just was thriving,” said Kruljac, who owns 20% of the 5-year-old Vronsky gelding. “We looked at the numbers and he wasn’t that far off. He was just so sharp and so healthy, we figured we had nothing to lose and maybe a little bit to gain. We took a shot.”
The second break: The Chosen Vron loves Santa Anita, the site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup. He’s won nine of 10 races at Santa Anita, including his past eight starts at the Arcadia track. He beat open company in a pair of Grade III stakes, the Affirmed and the Lazaro Barrera, in 2021.
The Bing Crosby victory gave The Chosen Vron eight consecutive wins, all with Hector Berrios in the saddle.
Next he’ll take dead aim on the best sprinters in the world in the Breeders’ Cup. His connections will have to pay a $100,000 supplemental fee to run because they didn’t nominate him to the two-day Super Bowl of horse racing.
“When he was a foal, he had a few little issues behind, a testicle that was bothering him, so we gelded him,” Kruljac said. “It’s been lights out ever since. That’s why I didn’t nominate him for the Breeders’ Cup, which turned out to be a big mistake.”
But the $240,000 winner’s share of the Bing Crosby will help take care of that. The prize money pushed The Chosen Vron’s career earnings past the $1 million mark ($1,032,678). Kruljac said the connections will most likely bypass the Santa Anita Sprint Championship and head straight to the Breeders’ Cup.
“We’re gonna keep him fresh,” the 70-year-old trainer said. “We’re gonna spend the hundred grand and we’re just gonna go race. That’s the plan right now.”
Kruljac said The Chosen Vron is one of the two best horses he’s trained, right up there with Leave Me Alone, who won the Test Stakes at Saratoga by 8½ lengths in 2005 with Kent Desormeaux in the irons.
“He definitely moved to the top,” Kruljac said of The Chosen Vron’s Bing Crosby score.
Kruljac currently has only eight horses to train, five at Los Alamitos and three at Del Mar.
“I’m way down (in numbers),” he said. “I’m an old guy, an old-fashion guy. I’ve got one good one so it makes it exciting to go to the barn every morning.”
And the former Arizona State football standout, whose career under legendary coach Frank Kush ended prematurely before his sophomore year when he blew out his knee – “I was a legend in my own mind,” he cracked – said The Chosen Vron is a pleasure to be around in the barn.
“He’s just a joy,” Kruljac said. “He’s just all class. He’s just got one of those calm demeanors. He can run short and he can run long. He’s the most versatile horse I’ve ever had for sure.”
Also most likely one of the most consistent horses Kruljac has trained. He’s won 13 of 17 races and has finished worse than third only once. He was fifth in the Grade II Pat O’Brien Stakes last summer at Del Mar.
Since then, he’s gone postward as the favorite in seven of his past eight starts. He was the 9-2 third choice in the Bing Crosby.
“I’m just relishing it and going forward,” said Kruljac, who spent about 10 years in the private detective business before taking out his trainer’s license 30 years ago. When he opened his own agency, he began buying horses. Racing was in his blood after spending many days at Bay Meadows with his grandfather.
“I walked away from (private detective business) because I wanted to train my own horses,” Kruljac said. He started at Turf Paradise and eventually moved up to the big leagues at the Southern California tracks.
Now he trains one of the best sprinters on the West Coast, and he’s loving every minute of it.
“Once he got clear, I thought we had a helluva shot (to win the Bing Crosby),” Kruljac said. “We were screaming like crazy. He turned it on when he needed to.”
Now The Chosen Vron’s connections just need him to turn it on the first weekend of November.
Follow Art Wilson on Twitter @Sham73