Pat O’Brien paycheck would pay Wild Dude’s Breeders’ Cup fees
DEL MAR, Calif. – It’s a good thing Wild Dude has earned $404,667 this year. He is paying his way into the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland this fall.
Wild Dude won the richest race of his career in the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs at Del Mar on July 26 and goes for another lucrative stakes win in Saturday’s $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs.
Owners Green Smith and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer will need to give back some earnings to make Wild Dude eligible for the Breeders’ Cup races Oct. 30-31. Wild Dude was not nominated as a weanling in 2010, and the payment for a horse of racing age is $100,000.
Winning the Pat O’Brien, which pays $150,000 for first place, defrays that cost.
Wild Dude holds an automatic berth to the BC Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31 for winning the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes, if he is made eligible to the Breeders’ Cup. The Pat O’Brien winner receives a fees-paid berth for the BC Dirt Mile on Oct. 30, if made eligible.
Wild Dude is one of two horses in the O’Brien field with a graded stakes win this year, along with Kobe’s Back, who won the Grade 2 Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland in April. Appealing Tale was second in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on July 25 and is returning to a sprint for the first time since a second in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on June 27.
Pat O’Brien, Race 4
KEY CONTENDERS
Wild Dude (Last 3 Beyers: 106-95-95)
◗ Wild Dude won the third stakes of his career, and his first Grade 1, in the Bing Crosby Stakes, closing from fourth of five to win by 1 1/4 lengths in an 11-1 upset. The win ended a three-race losing streak since a victory in the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita in March.
◗ The 5-year-old Wild Dude is versatile. He can race as a stalker or closer.
“I think he can be in different places and be okay,” Hollendorfer said.
Kobe’s Back (Last 3 Beyers: 99-90-99)
◗ Kobe’s Back essentially lost all chance to win the Bing Crosby after he broke slowly, trailing by as many as 13 lengths before finishing 2 3/4 lengths behind Wild Dude.
“I think he could have won,” trainer Peter Eurton said.
◗ Kobe’s Back drew the inside post in the Bing Crosby but has the outside post in the Pat O’Brien. With a clean break, he is likely to stalk the pace of the longshots Indexical, who won an optional claimer on a sealed and sloppy track here July 19, or Turnover, who is making his stakes debut.