Victory in San Francisco Mile on Evening Sun gives Blanc's comeback a boost

ARCADIA, Calif. – Sunday morning on the backstretch at Santa Anita, jockey Brice Blanc ran into jockey and exercise rider Sophia Barandela, who asked how his weekend was going.

“I was in San Francisco yesterday and I ride a couple today,” Blanc said.

Blanc is plain guilty of underselling his weekend.

Saturday at Golden Gate Fields, Blanc won that track’s richest race aboard Evening Sun in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile, a $254,050 race on turf.

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Evening Sun ($18.60) rallied from 10th in a field of 14 to score a half-length win at over 5-2 favorite Vanzzy. The journey aboard Evening Sun in the San Francisco Mile was easier for Blanc than the trip to the airport for the return trip to the Los Angeles area.

“I barely made the plane,” Blanc said. “I had to run.”

Blanc rode Evening Sun for the first time in the San Francisco Mile, his first graded stakes win since Ms Peintour won the Grade 3 Astra Stakes at Santa Anita in January 2020. Quite a lot has happened to the 49-year-old Blanc in the interim.

In August of 2020 at Del Mar, Blanc fractured the C7 vertebra and two ribs, sustained a broken shoulder and a dislocated thumb when his mount clipped heels and fell in a turf race. Blanc did not resume riding until last October.

The San Francisco Mile was the third win of Blanc’s comeback. He has ridden 57 races since returning, and thought he would have greater success.

“I needed it,” he said of the San Francisco Mile result. “It’s been a little tough to get going.

“It’s been a tough road since October. I was expecting, maybe not loyalty, but people coming through and helping a little more. I’ve been working my ass off and I felt a little underappreciated. It’s discouraging.

“On your way back, there is nobody there to give you a little hand. I’m not asking to ride the Grade 1’s, just the maidens to put a little money in your pocket. It’s hard.”

A native of France who won his first race at Santa Anita in 1995, Blanc is the rare Southern California rider without an agent, booking mounts on his own.

“I’m doing it myself right now,” he said. “It’s nothing I can’t manage myself. It’s not like I have a ton of business.

“When you start getting really busy, you can’t manage it by yourself. It’s too much work.”

Evening Sun races for Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal and trainer Jeff Mullins. A 5-year-old British-bred gelding, Evening Sun was bred by the queen of England and raced for her until she was purchased by her current owners for approximately $189,000 at a horses in-training sale in England in the fall of 2020.

Since arriving in the United States, Evening Sun has won 3 of 7 starts. He finished first in an allowance race at Del Mar last July, but was disqualified and placed eighth.

In each of the wins, Evening Sun has closed from the back of the field with a sharp rally. In the San Francisco Mile, Evening Sun trailed by 3 1/2 lengths with a furlong remaining.

“I haven’t ridden a horse with such a turn of foot in a long time,” Blanc said. “What an eighth of a mile.”

Blanc won the San Francisco Mile for the third time on Saturday. He won aboard Wavy Run in 1997 and two years later aboard the mare Tuzla.

“It’s been a bit of a drought since then,” Blanc said.

Blanc has three mounts on Friday’s nine-race program at Santa Anita, all in maiden races. The jockey roster in Southern California is going through an evolution this spring with the recent departure of leading jockey Flavien Prat and Umberto Rispoli to Kentucky.

Blanc hopes to benefit from their absence.

“It’s opening some doors a little more,” he said. “I need to prove I’m still capable of riding like I was used to.”