Tranche's dominant victory has Mendez making summer plans
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Overlooked at 20-1, Tranche forced attention when he stormed through the stretch to win the $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Futurity for 2-year-olds at five furlongs by 7 1/4 lengths on Saturday at Santa Anita.
“I was surprised,” trainer Luis Mendez reflected Sunday. “I thought we had a chance of winning, but not that way.”
The win has left Mendez, and owner Bill Peeples, eager for the Del Mar summer meeting and a race such as the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at six furlongs on Aug. 13. Beyond that, there is the greater goal of the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity at seven furlongs on Sept. 10.
Mendez and Peeples saw a potential competitor for those races on Sunday when the high-profile juvenile Muth won his debut in a five-furlong maiden race at Santa Anita by 8 3/4 lengths in the quick time of 57.29 seconds.
Muth, by Good Magic, earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 87, compared to 80 for Tranche in the Fasig-Tipton Futurity.
Trained by Bob Baffert for Amr Zedan, Muth was purchased for $2 million at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March sale in Florida, the most expensive hip of the auction.
Mendez is in a familiar position with a 2-year-old geared toward summer stakes at Del Mar.
In 2020, Mendez won the Del Mar Futurity with Dr. Schivel in the colt’s final start for his stable. Dr. Schivel was later partially sold and transferred to trainer Mark Glatt. Dr. Schivel remains active for Glatt and was a Grade 1 winner in 2021 and second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint that year.
Tranche had an earlier start to his career than Dr. Schivel, who finished second in his debut in a maiden race at Los Alamitos in July and won his second start in early August of 2020 at Del Mar.
“He’s a different kind of horse,” Mendez said of Tranche. “He feels strong. Dr. Schivel, at this time of the year, he was a little tricky.
“This one, from day one, has been giving us a [reason] to love him. This one has more weight, a lot heavier.”
Tranche won for the first time in the Fasig-Tipton Futurity in his third start.
Tranche, a colt by Collected purchased for $210,000 as a yearling at Keeneland last September, was seventh of 11 in his debut in a maiden race on April 7 at Keeneland, but improved to finish a well-beaten third behind easy winner Youalmosthadme in the Kentucky Juvenile on May 4 at Churchill Downs.
Mendez and Peeples won the Fasig-Tipton Futurity for the second time in three years with Tranche. They won the race in 2021 with Big City Lights in what turned out to be the colt’s final start of the year and last race for Mendez.
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Now trained by Richard Mandella, Big City Lights was a stakes winner at Del Mar last summer.
Mendez, 38, has a stable that emphasizes 2-year-olds. Of the 30 horses in his intended stable at Del Mar, 20 are juveniles, he said.
“This is the exciting time, when we get the babies to start,” he said. “When they win like this, you push them up the ladder.”
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