2006 Sunshine Millions

Bordonaro Primed for Sprint

ARCADIA, Calif. (Jan. 20, 2006) -- Persistence paid off for Bill Spawr with a 5-year-old California-bred gelding named Bordonaro.

After losing by 13¼ lengths in his maiden race last February and then running for a $32,000 claiming tag, the chestnut son of Memo has won six of eight career starts despite a nagging but undetected problem that kept him from running at his peak. No pun intended, but all that’s “behind” him now and it’s on to Gulfstream Park for the $300,000 Sunshine Millions Sprint at six furlongs on Jan. 28.

“Every time he ran, every rider that got off him said he was not right behind,” trainer Bill Spawr said. “He was winning and he was running good, but on the turns he wouldn’t change (leads) behind. He would stay on the wrong lead and he wouldn’t switch.

“We did nuclear scans, we did X-rays, we did everything and spent a lot of money trying to figure out what it was. We couldn’t see anything conclusive, although it was suggested on the nuclear scan but not on the X-ray that his left hock was bothering him. So we injected him with some acid and did some therapy, and it got better but he still wasn’t changing leads in his races.

I ran him back too quick at Del Mar (fourth in the Pirates Bounty on Sept. 7 after winning an optional claiming race two weeks earlier) because there was no place to go. He ran all right, but then I had from Sept. 7 to Nov. 6, and I spent 30 days just jogging and galloping him to strengthen his back end, and his problem cleared up. Now he’s changing leads behind and look at his last two races (daylight victories on the front end in the California Cup Starter Sprint Handicap and the Grade III Vernon O. Underwood). He’s run eight flat (1:08 for six furlongs) both times.”

Bordonaro has six wins from eight starts with earnings of $207,164 for owners Fred Carrillo of Monarch Beach, CA, and Daniel Cassella of Las Vegas.

In other Sunshine Millions news: Probable for the $1 million Classic: B.B. Best, no rider; Buzzards Bay, Garrett Gomez; Calkins Road, no rider; Desert Boom, no rider; Lava Man, no rider; McCann’s Mojave, Jose Valdivia Jr.; Supervisor, no rider; Texcess, no rider; Tricky Trevor, no rider; Wild Buddy, Aaron Gryder; and Proud Tower Too, David Cohen. Texcess worked six furlongs at Hollywood Friday in a bullet 1:13.40 for Paul Aguirre, while Malibu winner Proud Tower Too worked one mile in 1:39, also at Hollywood, for Sal Gonzalez. Probable for the $250,000 Dash at Santa Anita: Da Stoops, no rider; Brite Maneuvers, Corey Nakatani; and Like Now, no rider.