Gift Box being pointed to Awesome Again Stakes

Veteran Grade 1 winner Gift Box, who began the year among the top handicap horses in California before a wrenched ankle knocked him out of training, will target an autumn stakes race for his first start of 2020.

Plans call for Gift Box to return in the Grade 1 Awesome Again in the fall at Santa Anita, which will determine if the 7-year-old is Breeders’ Cup-worthy. Gift Box won the 2019 Santa Anita Handicap and finished second in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita. He has not started since winning the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes on Dec. 28.

Gift Box was the early favorite for the 2020 Santa Anita Handicap on March 7, but scratched on race day with a wrenched ankle. His trainer, John Sadler, along with owner Hronis Racing and jockey Joel Rosario, won the Big Cap anyway with Combatant.

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Although the injury to Gift Box was initially described by Sadler as a “minor setback,” recovery took longer than expected. Sadler said this week that Gift Box has resumed light training and will aim for an autumn comeback.

“He’s back in training, the plan is to have one race before the Breeders’ Cup,” Sadler said. “He’ll run in the Awesome Again and then hopefully the Breeders’ Cup.”

Hronis Racing owns Gift Box, a son of Twirling Candy with six wins and $1,127,060 from 18 starts. Gift Box was an allowance-caliber horse in New York before he was purchased privately and sent to California in 2018. In five starts for Hronis and Sadler, Gift Box won three graded stakes races from five starts and earned $782,900.

Saturday at Santa Anita, Sadler and Hronis start Higher Power in the Hollywood Gold Cup.