Santa Anita: Jeranimo must face distance challenge

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jeranimo, spry as ever at age 8, bounced out of his victory in the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita in good shape, leaving trainer Mike Pender contemplating where to run him next during this elongated, six-month meeting.

“He was just like his old self, like he didn’t run,” Pender said. “He dived into his feed tub, destroyed his hay net, and said thanks for the mile-and-an-eighth workout in 1:46.”

Jeranimo once used to stalk the leaders, but as he has aged, he’s become accustomed to dropping out of it and making one run.

“Like Zenyatta,” Pender said. “He mows you down.”

The San Gabriel was at 1 1/8 miles, but upcoming grass stakes for older runners are either at one mile, like the Arcadia on Feb. 1, or 1 1/4 miles, like the San Marcos on Feb. 8. Both are Grade 2, $200,000 races, so there’s no temptation regarding grade or purse. It’s strictly distance.

“He can handle a mile, but I think he’s probably best these days at a mile and an eighth or a mile and a quarter,” Pender said.

At Santa Anita, Jeranimo has now won four times in 11 starts and has finished in the money seven times. At nine furlongs, he has won four times in eight starts, with a pair of runner-up finishes. Three of those wins came in the last four runnings of the San Gabriel.

“He should be 4 for 4 in the last four if his bonehead trainer didn’t try to make a speed horse out of him,” Pender said, referring to a runner-up finish in the 2012 San Gabriel. “The great thing about great horses like this is they forgive the mistakes made by humans.”

This San Gabriel win was the 11th in 39 lifetime starts for Jeranimo, who has now earned more than $1.5 million. He is an entire horse, so there has been talk of retirement for stud duty, but Pender said he and owners B.J. Wright and Robert La Penta agreed to keep racing him this year as long as he can compete at this level.

The win was a tonic for Wright, who has been ill and watched the race from home in nearby Pasadena after initially intending to come to the track.