True Valour seeks repeat win, rebound in Thunder Road Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – True Valour broke slowly and was stranded wide in the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes for turf sprinters on Jan. 1 at Santa Anita. He finished eighth of 10 as the 5-2 second choice, beaten four lengths. It was not his sort of trip.

“He didn’t break,” trainer Simon Callaghan recalled Wednesday. “He was wide and had no cover. Nothing went right for him.”

True Valour won two graded stakes at a mile on turf last year and will return to that distance for Saturday’s Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes. Tenth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile here in November, True Valour won the 2019 Thunder Road in an 11-1 upset, but figures to be a lower price in Saturday’s $100,000 race.

“We know a mile is a good fit for him,” Callaghan said.

Andrea Atzeni, who rides primarily in England and is based in California this month, will have the mount. Atzeni was aboard True Valour in the 2019 Thunder Road and will be under instructions to keep the 6-year-old horse off the pace and behind rivals early.

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“The horse needs cover,” Callaghan said.

The Thunder Road Stakes is a prep for the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on March 7, the top turf mile race of the winter at Santa Anita.

Other possible candidates for the Thunder Road are Frontier Market, Kingly, Majestic Eagle, Ronald R, and The Hunted. The Thunder Road Stakes will be the California debut for the 7-year-old Frontier Market, who was third in the Artie Schiller Stakes at Aqueduct for trainer Chad Brown on Nov. 9.

Frontier Market was sold for $170,000 at the Keeneland November sale and is now owned by Pete and Kosta Hronis and trained by John Sadler.

The Thunder Road Stakes is one of two stakes on Saturday’s program, along with the Grade 2 Las Virgenes Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile. The Las Virgenes candidates include Venetian Harbor, the exciting winner of a maiden race by 10 3/4 lengths at 6 1/2 furlongs on Dec. 29.

Callaghan makes stakes plans

Callaghan is forming race plans for the stakes winner Bellafina, the stakes-placed Donna Veloce, and for the promising 3-year-old Great Power.

Bellafina, a six-time stakes winner and millionaire who was second in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on Dec. 28 as the 3-5 favorite, has resumed training after a brief rest at a local farm. Callaghan said the Grade 1 Madison Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs on April 4 at Keeneland is a goal.

Donna Veloce, second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November and Grade 1 Starlet Stakes on Dec. 7 at Los Alamitos, had her first workout of the year on Feb. 1, going three furlongs in 37.20 seconds at Los Alamitos where Callaghan’s stable is based this winter.

Donna Veloce is scheduled to have her 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 8 at Santa Anita.

Great Power, the sharp winner of a maiden special weight race at 6 1/2 furlongs on Sept. 29 in his only start, has resumed workouts after being given a rest in the fall. Callaghan said he is tentatively planning to start him in the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby in New Mexico on March 22.

“We need to get a few more works in and find out where we’re at,” Callaghan said. “He’s moving forward pretty quick.”