The Chosen Vron tries something new in Affirmed Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – After perusing the list of 13 horses nominated to the Grade 3 Affirmed Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita, the trainer of The Chosen Vron noted most were from two stables.

“Five O’Neills, three Bafferts,” Eric Kruljac said, smiling.

Only one Kruljac. It might be enough.

The Chosen Vron stretches out Saturday in the 1 1/16-mile Affirmed for 3-year-olds, and Kruljac said he is “cautiously optimistic” the stakes-winning California-bred will stay the Affirmed distance in his first race around two turns.

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His rivals are unheralded. Doug O’Neill entered minor stakes runner-up Jimmy Irish; Bob Baffert entered maiden winners Classier and Defunded. Highly rated maiden winner Mr. Impossible also entered. It’s a field of five, and without any of the big guns.

Plans for O’Neill-trained Belmont Stakes runner-up Hot Rod Charlie are unspecified; the same applies to Baffert-trained Medina Spirit, first across the wire in the Kentucky Derby.

It leaves The Chosen Vron as the most accomplished Affirmed entrant and certain favorite, having won 3 of 4 including a pair of 6 1/2-furlong sprints – the Grade 3 Laz Barrera Stakes and Echo Eddie Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds.

“He’s learning to relax really well,” Kruljac said. “I think teaching him to rate [is the difference], which was kind of by accident. He got a ton of dirt in his face, and ran right through it” referring to the Echo Eddie two starts back.

The Chosen Vron broke slowly, encountered trouble on the turn, and kicked clear in the Echo Eddie. Six weeks later, he scored a similarly decisive win in the Barrera. Kruljac resisted temptation to run in the Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs or Woody Stephens at Belmont. He opted to stay home and allow The Chosen Vron to develop.

“He’s starting to stretch out,” Kruljac said. “He’s ‘airy,’ he’s not a chunk. And he’s absolutely shining like a new penny.”

Though the gelding’s physique is changing from sprinter to potential router, Kruljac may still target a lucrative California-bred sprint stakes at Del Mar.

“Win, lose or draw, there’s the Real Good Deal,” he said, referring to the $175,000 sprint for California-bred 3-year-olds on July 22.

Umberto Rispoli rides The Chosen Vron in the Affirmed, race 10 on an 11-race that includes four races with five entrants.

Classier exits a highly productive stakes race. He won his career debut sprinting Oct. 24, then jammed back 13 days later for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He finished eighth and has not raced since. Meanwhile, BC Juvenile form has strengthened.

The first five BC finishers and the seventh-place finisher subsequently won graded stakes. In finish order, they are Belmont winner Essential Quality, Grade 2 winner and Belmont runner-up Hot Rod Charlie, Grade 2 winner Keepmeinmind, Grade 2 winner Jackie’s Warrior, and Preakness winner Rombauer. Seventh place King Fury won a Grade 3.

Classier returns with bullet workouts. Defunded adds blinkers and stretches out from a fourth in the Pat Day Mile.