Hollywood Park: Puype gets another Breeders’ Cup winner

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Trainer Mike Puype won his first Breeders’ Cup race earlier this month, and eventually doubled the number of Breeders’ Cup winners in his barn.

Mizdirection provided Puype with his first win in a Breeders’ Cup race, in the Turf Sprint, but he also now trains Calidoscopio, the Argentine import who won the BC Marathon and has remained in this country.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do with him yet,” Puype said at Betfair Hollywood Park, where he is based. “He’s a hard horse to spot.”

True, there aren’t any stakes races mirroring the Marathon – 1 3/4 miles on dirt. Calidoscopio, 9, is clearly better on dirt, a surface over which he has 9 wins in 30 starts. He is just 1 for 10 on turf.

“He’s 20 times better on dirt,” Puype said.

In addition to Mizdirection and Calidoscopio, Puype also has a promising youngster in his barn in the 2-year-old filly Home Journey, who crushed an allowance field on Friday by 8 1/4 lengths for her second sprint win in as many starts. She will make her next start in the seven-furlong, $200,000 Soviet Problem Stakes for California-bred fillies on Dec. 9, Puype said.

“That’s one of the races they added on the schedule,” Puype said, referring to the lucrative Golden State Series. “It’s a no-brainer.”