The Chosen Vron retires

The Chosen Vron, a two-time Grade 1 winner and California’s Horse of the Year in 2023 and 2024, has been retired, according to co-owner and trainer Eric Kruljac.

A 7-year-old gelding, The Chosen Vron won 19 of 24 starts and earned $1,709,678 in a career that spanned five seasons from late 2020 to last August.

The Chosen Vron finished second by a neck to Raging Torrent in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar last August, narrowly missing a 19th career stakes win. The Chosen Vron won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar in 2023 and 2024, results Kruljac called the highlight of the gelding’s career.

“It meant a lot to me, those two races, especially the second one,” Kruljac said earlier this week.

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Co-owned by Kruljac, John Sondereker, Robert Fetkin, and Richard Thornburgh, The Chosen Vron compiled winning streaks of three, eight, and six races. Of his 18 stakes wins, 10 were on dirt at Santa Anita, two were on turf at Santa Anita, four were on dirt at Del Mar, and one each was on dirt at Los Alamitos and Turf Paradise.

The Chosen Vron’s retirement was first reported earlier this week by Bloodhorse.com. Kruljac said The Chosen Vron will be retired at Kingfisher Farm in Solvang, Calif.

Last fall, The Chosen Vron was scratched from consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar after undergoing a veterinary inspection. The Chosen Vron was fifth in the 2023 BC Sprint at Santa Anita.

Recently, The Chosen Vron underwent an examination to determine whether a comeback was feasible. The decision to retire The Chosen Vron was made in recent days, Kruljac said on Monday.

“We don’t want to take any chances of anything catastrophic,” he said. “We were looking at bringing him back at late 7 or early 8 years of age. If anything every happened, it puts the horse in a position where he might hurt himself. That’s not what we’re in this game for.

“We were so lucky to have him for as long as we did.”

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