Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint: Washington-bred Bodenheimer earns spot
The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint usually attracts its share of runners who have already done a fair bit of traveling in their nascent careers. In addition to the European shippers who target the race, Wesley Ward also typically sends in youngsters who have been racking up frequent-flyer miles.
Among the well-traveled runners in this year’s field will be Bodenheimer. The colt will become the sixth Washington-bred to start in a Breeders’ Cup race after his travels through the Midwest led him to a victory in the local prep at Breeders’ Cup host track Keeneland.
Bodenheimer connections are a family affair, as he is trained by Valorie Lund for her mother, Marylou Holden, and sister Kristin Boice. Lund also trained the colt’s sire, Washington-bred graded stakes winner Atta Boy Roy, who now stands in Washington. Atta Boy Roy was the most recent Washington-bred to start in a Breeders’ Cup race, finishing 10th in the 2010 Sprint. The best finish for a Washington-bred at the Breeders’ Cup was the ninth from Tortellini Roma in the 1987 Juvenile Fillies.
Lund purchased Bodenheimer, who is out of the stakes-winning A.P. Indy mare Beautiful Daniele, for $27,000 out of last year’s Washington Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association yearling and mixed sale.
“He really favors his dam, who was an A.P. Indy daughter,” Lund said. “Yes, he’s fast like Atta Boy Roy, who was extremely fast. But physically, he tends more toward the A.P. Indy line, in my opinion.”
Bodenheimer first appeared on the work tab at Lund’s usual winter base, Turf Paradise in Arizona, before she moved to her string at Canterbury Park in Minnesota. He won on debut there in July, then won the Prairie Gold Juvenile in Iowa. After finishing fifth in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint, he won the Indian Summer Stakes last Sunday at Keeneland on the front end, earning a berth into the Breeders’ Cup.
“This colt, early on, I’d never had a 2-year-old that trained so forwardly,” Lund said. “I’m really cautious with my 2-year-olds, so not a lot of them even make it to the races. Early on, I told my sister, ‘This colt is good enough, if he stays sound, we could maybe go to the Breeders’ Cup with him.’ And he has just done everything right. He’s been an iron horse, he’s smart, he’s fast. And so he’s fulfilled everything we thought early on, and now we’re going.”
Bodenheimer will spend the weeks preceding the Breeders’ Cup training at Ashwood Training Center north of Lexington, Ky. He is leading the charge into Kentucky for Lund, who is in the process of moving her operations “lock, stock, and barrel” to the Bluegrass State.
“Arizona, where we usually winter, is not going to open this winter,” Lund said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of years, and we decided now is the time. So I’m moving everything – broodmares, babies, racing stock. Everything is coming to Kentucky – it’s either here or it’s on its way.”