Restrainedvengence points to Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile
After a disrupted but ultimately successful trip to New Mexico for the Downs at Albuquerque Handicap last month, Restrainedvengence is bound for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.
The journey to the starting gate for the Dirt Mile is certain to go smoother than the road trip to Albuquerque.
A few days before the Downs at Albuquerque Handicap, Restrainvengence was in the midst of the 12-hour van ride from Southern California when the truck’s motor conked out near Kingman, Ariz.
Owner Kelly Brinkerhoff and trainer Val Brinkerhoff reached out to Lee Peterson, a racing friend and starter at Arizona Downs, who put the couple in touch with Alex Torres, who lived near Kingman. Torres, a horsemen in Arizona, loaned the Brinkerhoffs a truck to complete the trip. Restrainedvengence arrived in Albuquerque without incident, thanks to Torres’s assistance.
“What a jewel, he was,” Val Brinkerhoff said of Torres. “That was a lucky day for me. I didn’t know what to do. The only people who would do that are horse people.”
Restrainedvengence won his eighth stakes by a nose as the 123-pound highweight in the $200,000 Downs at Albuquerque Handicap at 1 1/8 miles.
The BC Dirt Mile, expected to be led by Life Is Good and Ginobili, will be a much tougher task for Restrainedvengence, a 6-year-old gelding who has won 10 of 34 starts and earned $917,682. After all, it’s not often a Breeders’ Cup starter has a prep race in New Mexico.
In his lone start in a Grade 1 race this year, Restrainedvengence finished third behind Smooth Like Strait in the Shoemaker Mile on turf on May 31 at Santa Anita. Restrainedvengence followed that loss with a win in the Grade 3 American Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita in June, his first graded stakes win.