The Chosen Vron to stretch out in Affirmed Stakes
ARCADIA, Calif. – California-bred gelding The Chosen Vron, a two-time stakes winner and the top 3-year-old sprinter in California, will stretch to a route for the first time in the Grade 3 Affirmed Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita.
“I’ve got to see if you can stretch out,” trainer Eric Kruljac said early this week at Santa Anita. “I’m cautiously optimistic.”
He has good reason. Based on decisive stakes wins in both recent starts at 6 1/2 furlongs, The Chosen Vron could start favored in the 1 1/16-mile Affirmed. He won the Echo Eddie Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds on April 3 and dominated the Grade 3 Laz Barrera on May 15, winning by more than three lengths under Umberto Rispoli.
“He has so much left at the end of his races,” Kruljac said. “Rispoli said he didn’t really use him” in the Barrera.
The Chosen Vron has won 3 of 4 starts and is the only graded stakes winner nominated to the Affirmed, named for the 1978 Triple Crown winner trained by Lazaro Barrera.
“It would be pretty cool to win the Laz Barrera and the Affirmed,” Kruljac said.
Two Step Salsa won both races at Hollywood Park in 2008; Mucho Gusto won both races at Santa Anita in 2019.
Post positions for the $100,000 Affirmed will be drawn Thursday. The 13 Affirmed nominees include Classier, a Bob Baffert trainee, unraced since finishing eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and stablemate Defunded.