Talco punches ticket to Breeders' Cup Mile
ARCADIA, Calif. - The primary goal of Talco’s 2015 season was determined with his upset win in Saturday’s $400,000 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita.
The race was part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth for the winner to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 31. The Grade 1 Shoemaker was the most significant win of Talco’s career in his 15th start, and a turnaround from his behavior after he joined trainer John Sadler’s stable last summer from France.
“He was a difficult horse when he came over,” owner Kosta Hronis said after Saturday’s race. “He didn’t adapt well at the beginning.”
Talco lost his first five starts in the United States, a span that included a third to Horse of the Year California Chrome in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar last November. His recent form has been different. Talco has won three of his last four starts, including the minor Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf on April 4.
In the Shoemaker Mile, Talco ($28.40) closed from last in a field of five to win by a half-length over even-money favorite Midnight Storm. A 4-year-old colt by Pivotal, Talco may have one or two starts at Del Mar, with turf races such as the $400,000 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on July 18 and the $200,000 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 23 to be considered.
Hronis said that the Shoemaker Mile win “took the pressure off” and allows him and Sadler to aim for the BC Mile.
“John can schedule it how he wants,” Hronis said. “We’ll find something at Del Mar. I think he can go a mile and a sixteenth and maybe a mile and an eighth.”
Midnight Storm, who won the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby last August, is a candidate for the Grade 1 Eddie Read, trainer Phil D’Amato said.
“I don’t think any less of him,” D’Amato said. “I think he’s one of the best turf horses on the West Coast.”
Aside from Talco’s win, the surprise in the Shoemaker was the last-place finish by Bal a Bali, the 2014 Brazilian Horse of the Year who won the Grade 3 American Stakes in his U.S. debut on May 9. Bal a Bali was beaten three lengths, never threatening Talco.
“I think the first race might have taken more out of him than I thought,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “He’s such a big, strong horse that he fooled me.”
Mandella said he will consider the Read for Bal a Bali.