Home Journey wires Las Cienegas

Home Journey earned her first stakes win in the Las Cienegas (Benoit Photos) GGG Stables and Russell J. Sarno’s Home Journey (Good Journey) shot to the lead as soon as the gates opened on Saturday’s $100,750 Las Cienegas S. (G3) at Santa Anita Park and never looked back en route to a one-length victory under jockey Rafael Bejarano. The bay mare ran about 6 1/2 furlongs on the firm downhill turf in 1:13 to earn her first stakes score. “It was worth it. We’ve been trying for a long time, over 25 years,” Mark Giardino of GGG Stables answered when asked how it felt to win a first graded stakes as an owner/breeder. “This is wonderful,” Daryle Ann Giardino added. “My dad (actor Slim Pickens) and mom loved the race horses. When I was a kid, Farrell Jones was our trainer.” Home Journey established fractions of :21 3/5 and :43 4/5 while pursued by Unforgettable U (Tale of the Cat) to her outside and Theatre Star (War Front) just behind on the rail. Theatre Star began her move as Unforgettable U faded nearing the dirt crossover, angling out and attempting to run down the longtime leader, but could not keep up.

Go West Marie (Western Fame), the 3-2 favorite, and Blingismything (Arch)
rallied from midpack to take up the chase but also failed to catch Home Journey
as she sailed under the wire to pay $8.40 as the 3-1 second choice.

“She’s got a lot of natural speed,” Bejarano said. “I didn’t send her; I took
hold and tried to get her to go slow and to relax. When we crossed the dirt, I
had enough horse to win it.”

“My filly just ran her eyeballs out — she just ran so good. But you gotta
have some pace. I’m proud of her, though — she ran her race,” trainer Eddie
Truman praised his charge Go West Marie.

Home Journey opened her career in 2012 with a pair of easy wins at Santa
Anita and Hollywood Park before being well-beaten in her next two against
state-bred stakes rivals. Trainer Mike Puype switched her back against
allowance/optional claiming rivals and the bay closed out 2013 with a pair of
seconds and a win against those types.

She didn’t reappear in competition until 15 months later and failed to factor
in her first two of 2014, but captured that year’s finale and opened her
five-year-old campaign last out with a close second in the Sunshine Millions
Filly & Mare Turf Sprint on January 24. Home Journey has thus far racked up
$279,920 in lifetime earnings to go along with her 12-5-3-0 career line.

“She ran really fast last time and just got nailed. Today, she slowed it down
a little bit, she kicked, and she ran a good race,” Puype remarked. “We’ll just
have to see where to go. We sent her to a different dollar value today, winning
a graded stakes, so that’s always big for a filly or mare.”

Bred in California by Mark & Daryle Ann Giardino and John Elick, Home Journey
is the first registered stakes winner out of Goodtobehome (Came Home). Her third
dam, Nijinsky’s Beauty (Nijinsky II), is a full sister to multiple Grade 1 hero
Nijinsky’s Secret, and this female family also includes Grade 1 victor Vergennes
(Dynaformer) and multiple Grade 1-placed Palacio de Amor (Dixieland Band).

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