Goldencents gone from barn, but memories remain

This has been a bittersweet week at the barn of trainer Leandro Mora, for less than 24 hours after Goldencents won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile for the second straight year, he was on a plane to Kentucky, where he will begin his stud career next spring at Spendthrift Farm.

“It’s a bit of a void,” said Jack Sisterson, an assistant to Mora and Mora’s boss, Doug O’Neill, who is currently on suspension. “He was in the first stall, next to the office. You’d walk in at 3:30 or 4 in the morning, and his head was always out, ready to go.”

Sisterson and Dennis O’Neill, Doug’s brother, purchased Goldencents at auction as a 2-year-old in training for $62,000. He earned $3,044,000. His majority owners were Glenn Sorgenstein and Josh Kaplan, who threw a party for the barn when Goldencents left Santa Anita last weekend.

“They’re great like that,” Sisterson said.

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Goldencents won million-dollar races at ages 2, 3, and 4, shipped and ran well, and won sprinting and going long. Both his victories in the Dirt Mile came in races where he was forced to set fast fractions yet still staved off late challengers.

“Exactly the same race, back-to-back,” Mora said Friday at Del Mar.

Mora figures to be one of the top contenders for leading trainer at this 15-day meet since runners in his barn compete in all divisions, from stakes to claimers. On Sunday, he is in three of the nine races and hopes to start off the day with a win in the opener with Frensham.

Frensham won a downhill turf sprint at Santa Anita last time out, so Mora is bringing him back in a five-furlong turf sprint here. In two starts this summer on Del Mar’s turf, he finished third, both times going two turns.

“He acts like this is his style,” Mora said. “If he doesn’t handle it, we can go back to the long races, but I like him.”

Mora said he also likes Chilada in the seventh race. She will be seeking her third win in her last four starts.

“She loves this course, and she’s coming up to her peak,” Mora said.