Gold Rush

Cheiron Returns to Gold Rush

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (Apr. 16, 2007) -- Three years after winning the $250,000 Snow Chief Stakes on Gold Rush Day at Hollywood Park, Cheiron will seek his second victory in the $1.3 million series of races for Cal- breds, which is being contested for the eighth year on April 29.

When he runs in the $150,000 Tiznow Stakes at 7 ½ furlongs on Hollywood Park’s Cushion Track, Cheiron wil be making his first start in California in nearly two years and is under new management.

Since being acquired by a Venezuelan group in the summer of 2005, the gray son of 1995 2-year-old champion Maria’s Mon, out of Fortunee, has raced in his owners’ homeland and has made his last five starts in Florida.

“We bought him to run in the biggest race in Venezuela, and he did well,” said Dibus Chaparro, who took over Cheiron’s training from Kristin Mulhall.

On Nov. 2, 2005, the horse ran second in the $279,079 Group I Clasico Internacional Simon Bolivar.

Chaparro now manages the racing interests of The Big Stable, whose principal owner, Giuseppe Iadisemia, now trains Cheiron.

The 6-year-old, whose name is pronounced Sha-RON, is coming off a second-place finish in a six-furlong event for $50,000 claimers at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 19. He has earned $418,290 from three victories, six seconds and three thirds in 24 starts.

His most recent score was in the 2004 Snow Chief, in which he came from off the pace to defeat Don’tsellmeshort by 1 ½ lengths in 1:48.78 for 1 1/8 miles. Alex Solis was aboard Cheiron, who was the 9-5 favorite in the field of eight.

“This is a Cal-bred race, so that’s why we’re coming,” Chaparro said in explanation of the plan to run Cheiron in the Tiznow. “We might leave the horse there for other races.”

Bred by The Thoroughbred Corp., for which Mulhall’s father, Richard, was the racing manager, Cheiron last raced in California on Aug. 22, 2005, when he was disqualified from fourth to fifth in a one-mile optional claimer on turf at Del Mar.

“The Venezuela people bought him right after that,” recalled Mulhall, who trained Cheiron for a partnership that included her brother, Michael, attorney Neil Papiano and, earlier, Steve Taub.

“He wasn’t too attractive as a stallion because he was bad bleeder,” Mulhall said, “though he ran well in Venezuela, where they don’t allow bleeder medication.”

Taub, one of Cheiron’s earlier owners, said he was “amazed to hear” that the horse still was in training, much less being pointed for the Tiznow.

“About 90 days ago, Kristin and I were talking about him and wondering what had become of him,” said Taub, who has several runners in training with Mulhall. “Since I heard he was running in the Tiznow, I’ve been thinking about buying a horse that could run against him.”

In the seven previous runnings of the Gold Rush, three horses were two-time winners. Spinelessjellyfish won the inaugural Khaled Stakes on turf in 2000 and won the Khaled again in 2001. Cee’s Elegance won the Lakeview Thoroughbred Farms Stakes in 2001 and added the B. Thoughtful Stakes in 2003.

Alphabet Kisses, a Grade I winner, also captured the Magali Farms Stakes on Gold Rush in 2004 and the B. Thoughtful in 2005.

Wild Again, Cheiron’s broodmare sire, captured the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1984 at Hollywood Park. All three two-time winners of Gold Rush races also are connected to Breeders’ Cup Classic champions. Spinelessjellyfish, an 11-year-old stallion who stands at Cardiff Stud Farm in Atascadero, Calif., is a son of Skywalker, who won the 1986 Classic. Ten-year-old Cee’s Elegance, a Golden Eagle Farm broodmare, is by Cee’s Tizzy, also the sire of Tiznow, two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (2000-2001). Alphabet Kisses, now six years old, is by Alphabet Soup, upset winner over Horse of the Year Cigar in the 1996 Classic. She also recently had her first foal—a colt by 1998 Classic winner Awesome Again.

Fortunee, Cheiron’s 13-year-old unraced dam, has been bred this year to first-year Legacy Ranch stallion Cindago.
—Larry Bortstein