Breeders' Cup Mile a difficult return spot for Bright Thought

For six weeks late last winter, Bright Thought looked like one of the best turf horses in the country, popping out from equine anonymity to win three straight Santa Anita grass races, including a 3 1/4-length romp in his graded stakes debut, the San Luis Rey, which he completed in a world record 2:22.72 for 1 1/2 miles on turf.

Just as quickly as Bright Thought rushed into the national racing consciousness, he disappeared, shelved not long after the March 16 San Luis Rey by a broken splint bone. Bright Thought has been galloping since mid-summer and posting timed workouts since mid-September, and if a turf workout Oct. 26 goes as planned, Bright Thought will make a long-awaited comeback in a most challenging race, the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

“We’re pretty sure we’re going to go,” said Jorge Gutierrez, who trains Bright Thought for owners Marjorie Dye and Alex Venneri. “If he does what we expect, we intend to run.”

Julien Leparoux is scheduled to work Bright Thought and to ride him for the first time in the Mile, Gutierrez said.

Bright Thought is the first graded stakes winner Gutierrez has handled during 16 years of training, and he is a most unusual case.

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A son of the Sunday Silence stallion Hat Trick bred by Venneri and Postum Farms (Dye is Postum’s principal), Bright Thought debuted July 2012 at Hollywood Park, finishing seventh in a maiden special weight sprint. Gutierrez said Bright Thought came out of his debut “with a little problem,” but Bright Thought was trained toward a start at Del Mar that never materialized.

Instead, Bright Thought’s owners directed Gutierrez to ship the horse east, and when he raced again, it was in a $25,000 maiden-claimer at Laurel Park last Nov. 16. Considering Bright Thought won by 11 lengths at odds of 1-2, it is somewhat surprising he was not claimed that day, and after two allowance races in Pennsylvania, Bright Thought wound up back with Gutierrez in January.

“He was a little beat up from the trip when he came back, but about a week after he was here he really started blossoming,” Gutierrez said.

And, for the first time, he got in a turf race. Bright Thought tried grass for the first time in the one-mile Super Bowl, a minor stakes Feb. 3, and he won going away after setting a solid pace. He ran even better stretching out to 1 1/4 miles in an allowance race 18 days later, and in the 12-furlong San Luis Rey, Bright Thought, who led throughout his first two grass wins, ceded the lead midway through the race to Slim Shadey, waiting patiently until given his cue, then blowing his rivals away with a big move at the top of the stretch.

That performance showed Bright Thought had more substance than a need-the-lead front-runner, and his ability to race effectively from eight to 12 furlongs opened a wide range of possibilities. But Bright Thought broke the tip of his splint, a narrow, nearly useless bone attached to the back of the cannon bone on the lower part of the leg. The splint was surgically removed and Bright Thought was out of action for about one month before beginning a swimming program. Gutierrez brought him back to the track in late June, and Bright Thought has logged more training for his comeback than his half-dozen published workouts would suggest.

The Mile, though, is not the Breeders’ Cup race his connections had in mind. Their tentative comeback plan called for a prep race leading to a start in the BC Turf, but the prep race never happened, and the shorter Mile became a stronger option. Bright Thought has never faced horses as good as Wise Dan, Olympic Glory, and the best California milers, and he might well be better suited to longer distances. The Mile, in fact, may wind up serving as the prep race Bright Thought never got this fall: The horse has an invitation to the 1 1/2-mile Japan Cup on Nov. 24 at Tokyo, and if all goes well, Gutierrez said, Bright Thought will make that trip.