Si Sage gives Vienna hope better days ahead

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Darrell Vienna went 5 1/2 years between stakes wins, ending a lengthy drought when Si Sage scored a 42-1 upset in Saturday’s $100,750 Last Tycoon Stakes at Santa Anita.

Vienna may only need another week for another stakes win.

Saturday, he plans to start Mystery Train in the $100,000 Precisionist Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. The 5-year-old Argentine-bred Mystery Train has every chance to be competitive in the Grade 3 Precisionist. He was second in the Grade 3 Mineshaft Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds on Feb. 21.

For Vienna, the success of Si Sage and the promise of Mystery Train are a relief after a tough start to the year. Si Sage was only his 10th runner, and first winner of the season.

“I had to ask where the winner’s circle was,” he joked on Sunday morning.

Mystery Train is part of a Precisionist field that lacks a standout. Other probable starters are Blue Tone, Catch a Flight, Galicado, and Motown Me. Catch a Flight was third to Shared Belief in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7 in his last start.

Vienna, 68, has a smaller stable this year than in recent seasons. Asked on Sunday about the number of horses in his stable, he said, “Very few.”

The ranks have been hit by injuries. The stable lost a promising European import in Kokaltash was euthanized after sustaining a leg injury in his American debut at Del Mar last summer. In the autumn, the 2-year-old Alright Alright was sidelined after finishing second in the Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar.

“He’ll make it back,” Vienna said. “I had a lot of horses get hurt. It was one after another.”

Si Sage won for the first time in the United States in the Grade 3 Last Tycoon Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf. The 5-year-old joined Vienna’s stable in 2013. For Vienna, the Last Tycoon was his first stakes win since Skyrush won the Brubaker Stakes at Del Mar in August 2009.

Vienna credited the improved performance by Si Sage on Saturday to the addition of blinkers, which Si Sage wore for the first time.

“He trains so much better since we put them on,” Vienna said.

Si Sage races for Red Baron’s Barn, Rancho Temescal, and Vayaconsuerte, LLC. Vienna said the horse is likely to start in the next turf marathon of the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting, the $200,000 Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on May 24.

“Yesterday, it looked like he could get a mile and a half,” Vienna said on Sunday. “It’s a possibility.”