Hesinfront completes his mission in Delta Downs Mile

Trainer Keith Bourgeois claimed Hesinfront because of the horse’s ability to come from off the pace. Well, that was one reason.

There were others, too, but it was indeed Hesinfront’s rally through the stretch that carried him to a head win in the $250,000 Delta Downs Mile on Nov. 19.

“He ran a good race,” said Bourgeois. “When I claimed him, I kind of had that race in mind.”

Bourgeois took Hesinfront for $62,500 out of a win at Churchill Downs on Sept. 29. Bourgeois claimed the horse on behalf of Troy Williams, a New Orleans resident who wanted to get back into racing after a brief absence. Williams asked Bourgeois to find some runners for the stable.

“One thing I liked was the horse’s breeding,” Bourgeois said of Hesinfront, a son of War Front and the Sky Classic mare Classy Marlin. “He also just looked like a horse that can run from off the pace, which I always like a horse that kind of stalks like he does. And he runs on the grass also. He does have pedigree to run on the turf. Everything I was looking for, he had.”

Hesinfront made his first start for his new connections Oct. 22 in an optional $80,000 claiming race at Keeneland, finishing third to Ami’s Holiday.

“There were a couple of horses in there that had been in graded races,” Bourgeois said. “The one that ran fourth had just come out of a graded race, so he hooked a pretty good bunch that day.”

Hesinfront came back in his next start to win the Delta Mile. The horse has since been sent to Fair Grounds, where Bourgeois will be based for the winter. He said Hesinfront is being pointed for the $75,000 Tenacious at one mile and 70 yards on Dec. 17.

The Delta Mile win was Bourgeois’s second in the race. He captured it in 1999 with Sarita’s Song – when the purse was $10,000.

Bourgeois, who long has been a leading trainer in Louisiana, ventured to Churchill Downs with a stable of horses this year for the first time and said he likely will go back again in 2017.