Ordak Dan BC Turf bound following Gran Premio 25 de Mayo
victory
The five-year-old Ordak Dan sprung loose in the final
furlong to score an upset win by three quarters of a length over favored Soy Carambolo in Saturday’s
Group 1, 1 1/2-mile Gran Premio 25 de Mayo at San Isidro
Racecourse in Argentina. In the process, the Hidden Truth five-year-old became the first horse this year to qualify for the
Breeders’ Cup Turf through the international Breeders’ Cup Challenge.
The Breeders’ Cup Challenge is a global series of 67 stakes races whose
winners earn automatic starting positions into a corresponding race of the
Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which will be held on November 1-2 at Santa
Anita Park in Arcadia, California.
Saturino Erro, the 95-year-old owner of Ordak Dan,
called the victory “the greatest of my life” and when asked whether he will
attend the Breeders’ Cup this November, replied, “Of course I will go.”
As a part of the benefits of the international Breeders’
Cup Challenge, the Breeders’ Cup will pay the $60,000 entry fee and provide a
$40,000 travel allowance to the winning stable to start Ordak Dan in the Turf
at Santa Anita if the horse is nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program by October
21.
Trained by Carlos Carabajal and ridden confidently by Pablo
Carrizo, Ordak Dan made his stakes debut in
the Gran Premio 25 de Mayo, having previously won four allowance races in 10
starts. Sitting in fourth place for most of the way in the 18-horse field,
Carrizo got the jump into the stretch and held off the fast closing Soy
Carambolo, owned by the Erro’s nephew, Gustavo Rappetti, to prevail in 2:29:34
over a turf course labeled soft. Going Somewhere finished third.
“The horse did great in the mornings, and he ran his best race,” Carrizo
said. “I won with him in the maiden last January, but he has improved a lot from
that time. To go to the United States and run in the Breeders’ Cup would be a
dream come true, but first we will wait on his owner and trainer’s decision.”
The Gran Premio 25 de Mayo is the first of two
international Breeders’ Cup Challenge races to be run this year in Argentina.
The Clasico Belgrano at Palermo Race Course will be run on June 21 for an
automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Marathon. Calidoscopio, who won last
year’s Marathon, qualified for the race by winning the Clasico Belgrano.
Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com