Echo Eddie favorite The Chosen Vron has look of universal Rainbow pick six single

ARCADIA, Calif. – Even though the final race Saturday at Santa Anita is merely a sprint for statebred 3-year-olds, pick six bettors could argue the Echo Eddie Stakes is more significant than the Santa Anita Derby earlier on the card.

The Chosen Vron will enter the Echo Eddie as one of the most heavily favored runners on the 12-race program, and a potential single in the mandatory-payout pick six. The jackpot into Friday exceeded $500,000; officials forecast a gross pool of $5 million on Saturday.

:: Get Brad Free’s Betting Strategies for Saturday’s card at Santa Anita

Based on his two starts – a debut romp and a Grade 2 third – The Chosen Vron looks tough in the Echo Eddie, the 12th race Saturday and the second stakes on the card for California-bred 3-year-olds. The Evening Jewel for fillies is race 10. Both $150,000 races are 6 1/2 furlongs.

Eric Kruljac trains The Chosen Vron, and he briefly considered running the gelding in the Santa Anita Derby after the defection of Life Is Good. But Kruljac is thinking long term with The Chosen Vron. That requires picking the right spots.

“Our goal with this horse is to have him at the races until he’s 7 or 8,” Kruljac said. “He’s a medium-smallish horse, and those horses stay sound.”

Kruljac said that last year, when The Chosen Vron was still a colt, he wasn’t working well “and kept going off behind.”

“We thought it was a tibia,” Kruljac said.

Turns out, the problem was his testicles.

“We gelded him,” Kruljac said, “and three weeks later he worked a hole in the wind.”

He ran like he worked. The Chosen Vron won his debut by more than six lengths, and followed with a creditable third in the Grade 2 San Vicente won by subsequent Rebel Stakes winner Concert Tour. The Chosen Vron drops significantly in class on Saturday.

His rivals include Mister Bold, who is 4 for 4 sprinting, stakes winner Good With People, speedball Letsgetlucky, and route-to-sprint None Above the Law. The others in the 11-runner field are Sabuda, Found My Ball, Top Harbor, Big Flame, Cargo, and Alpine Thunder.

While the Echo Eddie favorite is obvious, the favorite for the Evening Jewel is less clear. The fastest entrant is Pray for My Owner, whose second-start maiden win for trainer Mark Glatt earned a field-high 76 Beyer Speed Figure.

:: Enhance your handicapping with DRF’s Santa Anita Clocker Report

The challenge Saturday is to run the same race without Lasix, which isn’t allowed for most stakes at Santa Anita.

“Honestly, I am on pins and needles whether the Lasix thing is going to be an issue or not,” Glatt said. “She bled in her first start and didn’t finish [well]. She got Lasix, and you saw how she finished.”

Pray for My Owner, owned and bred by Mark Cohen, won that six-furlong statebred sprint by more than four lengths. She drew the outside post Saturday in the nine-runner Evening Jewel. Glatt said he will modify the filly’s preparation in an attempt to prevent bleeding.

“There are things we can try, but there’s nothing that works like a $35 Lasix shot,” he said.

Her rivals include 3-for-3 Becca Taylor, sharp Golden Gate shipper Maybe I Will, juvenile stakes winner Governor Goteven, and route-to-sprint stakes-placed Dylans Wild Cat. The other entrants are I’m So Anna, Fi Fi Pharoah, Big Clare, and Pawnee.