Boca Boy eschewing BC Juvenile for Kentucky Jockey Club

MIAMI – In the aftermath of Boca Boy’s two-length, upset victory over the previously undefeated and odds-on favorite Breeze On By in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality Stakes, there was talk of taking the steadily improving 2-year-old to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland on Nov. 6.

But in the end, the decision of whether or not to go came down to a matter of dollars and sense.

“I don’t believe we’re going to the Breeders’ Cup,” said Ken Winebaugh, assistant to his wife, Cheryl Winebaugh, who trains Boca Boy for owner Kenneth Fishbein. “The main reason being it would just be too much of an investment for us. He wasn’t nominated to the Breeders’ Cup as a baby, and it would cost $100,000 just to get him nominated.”

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But while Boca Boy won’t be heading to Keeneland for the first weekend in November, he nonetheless may be Kentucky-bound later that month with the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Juvenile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28 now the goal.

Boca Boy received a career-best 71 Beyer Speed Figure for his wire-to-wire win in the In Reality. He took his first major step toward the Kentucky Jockey Club last Thursday at Gulfstream Park, breezing five furlongs in 1:02. It was his first published work since July.

“He went well, nice and handily,” said Winebaugh. “I’m not really a big work person. I’m more old school. We do a lot of distance galloping with some two-minute miles thrown in. I just don’t like to overdo it with them. But I’d like to breeze him three times before we take him to the Jockey Club, that’s the plan at the moment.”