Brickyard Ride has something to prove in Kona Gold

ARCADIA, Calif. – California speedball Brickyard Ride always brings heat in April at Santa Anita, and the tradition continues on Saturday.

For the third straight year, the front-runner is favored to win the Grade 3 Kona Gold Stakes. This season, however, Brickyard Ride enters in uncertain form. Unlike 2021 when he finished second, or 2022 when he won, Brickyard Ride enters the Kona Gold this year following a loss.

It does not happen often at Santa Anita, where Brickyard Ride’s nine dirt wins include six stakes. But now he is 6 years old, winless in nearly a year, and making only his second start following an extended layoff. His recent third-place comeback, on turf, did not answer the question on the minds of trainer Craig Lewis and owner-breeder Sonny Pais.

“This question is, is he still the same horse?” Lewis said. “Is he back? I don’t know. It’s a matter of whether he’s still mentally in the game. We’re gonna find out in the Kona Gold.”

Brickyard Ride is expected to set the pace in the 6 1/2-furlong Kona Gold, race 5 on a card that includes the Grade 2 Californian Stakes, race 9. Brickyard Ride’s rivals in the Kona Gold include lightly raced and improving Anarchist, 8-year-old allowance front-runner Sunrise Journey, comebacker Positivity, Arizona shipper Trumped, and route-to-sprint Armagnac.

It’s a field Brickyard Ride should beat, even if a year has passed since his last win. Brickyard Ride’s victory in the 2022 Kona Gold was his fourth stakes win of the Santa Anita meet, but then things unraveled in the Grade 2 Triple Bend. Brickyard Ride set the pace as usual and faded to fifth. Jockey Juan Hernandez suspected something was amiss.

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“When Juan came back, he told me [Brickyard Ride] wasn’t right, that something happened,” Lewis said. “We couldn’t find it. We nuke-scanned him and it showed up, and we removed it.”

The “it” was a knee chip. Brickyard Ride rehabbed the second half of 2022 before he returned March 5 in the Grade 3 San Simeon on the hillside turf course. Brickyard Ride did not break well, Hernandez asked him, and he zoomed to the lead. Brickyard Ride tired and finished third.

Brickyard Ride has trained well since, and if he is the same horse as last year, he should be long gone. Brickyard Ride, who has won 12 races and $756,977 from 24 starts, has never lost more than two consecutive races.

The main pace rival for Brickyard Ride is Sunrise Journey, an 8-year-old entering off two fast front-running wins. Librado Barocio claimed Sunrise Journey for $20,000 in January, but the claim was voided. Barocio went back in for $20,000 in February, and this time it stuck. Sunrise Journey is 2 for 2 for Barocio. Edwin Maldonado rides him again Saturday.

“That’s my forte, older horses,” Barocio said. “I look for those kind, the kind that like to win.”

Sunrise Journey, 15 for 44, earned career-high Beyers of 93 and 92 his last two starts. Sunrise Journey also is nominated to the Siren Lure Stakes, a turf sprint on Sunday.

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