2021 Breeders' Cup Sprint: Firenze Fire prepping in Vosburgh for return engagement
When it comes to the Breeders’ Cup, nobody will have more experience going into the 2021 renewal than Firenze Fire, who, if all goes according to plan, will be making his fifth appearance on the big stage when he runs at Del Mar on Nov. 6 in the $2 million Sprint.
The Sprint recently lost two of its major players due to injury, with reigning champion Whitmore and Yaupon having been retired within the past month. But the race is still expected to feature both the second- and third-place finishers from a year ago at Keeneland, C Z Rocket and Firenze Fire.
Firenze Fire is coming off one of the best and certainly most bizarre performance of his career, when beaten a head by Yaupon after having savaged him badly in the run to the wire in the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga.
Firenze Fire, a 6-year-old homebred son of Poseidon’s Warrior owned by Mr. Amore Stable, will return to Del Mar for the first time since finishing seventh in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He was fourth the following season in the Dirt Mile and fifth in the 2019 Sprint before rallying from near the rear of the field to finish third behind Whitmore and C Z Rocket a year ago. He was transferred to his current trainer, Kelly Breen, during the spring of his 2020 campaign and has won four graded stakes for Breen, including the 2020 Vosburgh, which he will try to win again a week from Saturday at Belmont Park.
“He’ll run next in the Vosburgh, and if he puts in a good performance the plan is to go back to the Sprint,” Breen said. “As for what happened last time [in the Forego], he seems to be the same horse coming out of the race as he was going in. There is no difference in his demeanor. He’s been the same in his training and his workouts. He came out of that race well, and I’m excited to see his next effort.”
Breen said he felt Firenze Fire put in a winning effort in last year’s Sprint.
“The track was playing with such a speed bias, I think a lot of riders tried to ride the track and a lot of horses who normally figured to be behind him wound up in front of him and he had to come from further back than expected,” Breen said. “I thought he ran very well to finish third, and could have won with a better trip.”
Breen said that Irad Ortiz Jr., who won the 2017 Champagne and six other graded stakes aboard Firenze Fire, will be aboard for the Vosburgh, replacing his brother Jose, who’ll be at Keeneland that day.
The Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, one of three Win and You’re In races remaining for the BC Sprint, will be run this Saturday and is expected to include C Z Rocket, Collusion Illusion, Dr. Schivel, and Flagstaff.