Gunnevera comes oh-so-close to finally notching Grade 1 win

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Shortly after Gunnevera finished fifth behind the champion Gun Runner in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic his trainer, Antonio Sano, made a bold prediction.

“I told my owner and my family, next year we’re going to win the Classic,” Sano recalled.

He was nearly right.

On Saturday, at Churchill Downs, Gunnevera’s late rally under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. fell just a length short of running down the favorite and division leader Accelerate in the Classic. A frustrating yet rewarding outcome for Sano with a horse who, when he shipped to Kentucky from his South Florida base one week earlier, hadn't even been assured a spot in the Classic field.

Gunnevera went postward at 15-1 in the 2017 Classic. He was considered twice an outsider here Saturday, starting at odds of 30-1 despite coming into the race having finished second, as the favorite no less, in the Grade 1 Woodward nine weeks ago at Saratoga.

But Sano faced even longer odds just getting his horse back to the Classic, following an eventful trip to Dubai last spring for the World Cup.

“After he arrived in Dubai, he got colic,” Sano recalled. “Then he came up with a problem in his right foot. And after the race, a problem in the left one.”

Gunnevera was never a factor, finishing eighth, beaten a dozen lengths by Thunder Snow, in the Dubai World Cup. Sano gave him plenty of time to recuperate from the grueling trip and all his issues, finally bringing him back to dominate an overmatched field of allowance rivals at Gulfstream Park on Aug. 10. That race set him up perfectly for his big effort in the Woodward, in which he rallied from near the rear of the field to finish just two lengths behind Yoshida, despite a very wide trip, in yet another failed attempt to become a Grade 1 winner.

“He’s come so close to winning a Grade 1: Last year in the Travers, last time in the Woodward when he was wide the whole way around, and once again today in the Classic,” Sano said. “But we know it’s going to come.”

Although jockey Edgard Zayas works Gunnevera on a regular basis over his home base at Gulfstream Park West, and rode him to his second-place finishes in the Travers and Woodward, Sano reached out to Ortiz for the first time in the Classic.

“Edgard is a very good rider and such a huge part of this team, he played a big part in getting him (Gunnevera) ready for this race,” Sano said. “It was hard to make a change. But when Irad became available, we had to make the switch in a race like this.”

Ortiz orchestrated a perfect trip for Gunnevera after he ducked in sharply, forcing Catholic Boy to check leaving the gate, and allowing him to settle and save ground about a dozen lengths off the rapid pace set by Mendelssohn. Gunnevera began to advance strongly midway on the second turn, appeared to flatten out briefly in early stretch, then surged late between horses through the final furlong and was gaining ground steadily on the winner at the end.

“I told Irad to wait until the three-eighths pole to make his move and that’s exactly what he did,” Sano said. “In the last two furlongs, I thought we were going to win.”

Despite not having a Grade 1 win on his resume’, with his two most important victories to date having come in the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot at 2 and the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth during the winter of his 3-year-old campaign, Gunnevera’s bankroll swelled to more than $4 million with the $1,020,000 he earned for his second-place finish in the Classic.

“I told the owner before the race, after we win today we’re going straight to the Pegasus,” Sano said with a smile. “We didn’t win, but I’ll take him home, give him a little rest, and we’ll go straight to the Pegasus anyway. And maybe then, we’ll finally get that Grade 1 win.”