Jeranimo will look to relish the pace presented in the Kilroe Mile
Trainer Michael Pender believes that his Florida bred 6-year-old Congaree horse, Jeranimo, runs better when he has a target in sight, and for the race he is entered this time around has a 4 to 5 morning line tough favourite, Mr. Commons, and it will not be a cinch for Jeranimo to run him down in the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita Park on its turf course at about a mile on 3 March, 2012, against seven other 4-year-old and above colts and geldings.
“He definitely runs better with a target, if you just leave him alone and let him do his thing,” Pender said. “Just put him in cruise control behind other horses and let him drop his bit. He can out-gallop any miler in the country, I believe.
“But if you get to fighting and tussling with him, and the pace is such that it’s so slow that he’s up there on the front end, it tends to take away that turn of foot,” Pender added. “Hopefully he’ll find a nice little spot to relax and put it into cruise control and you’ll see that sizzling, scintillating three-sixteenths turn of foot that he’s got.”
Owned by B. J. Wright, Jeranimo, had Mr. Commons in his sights three races ago in the Grade 2 Oak Tree Mile, and Jeranimo successfully ran down Mr. Commons to win the race at Santa Anita on 8 October, 2011, with the winning time of 1 minute and 32.61 seconds.
Though, Mr. Commons missed Jeranimo by a mere three quarters of a length in the end, but the important thing for Jeranimo is that he wasn’t caught and kept Mr. Commons honest throughout the race.
Out of mare Jera by Jeblar, Jeranimo assumed the lead in his last race, the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes by default, going over a distance of 1 1/8 miles, a distance that he last tried in 2011 in the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes and finished second to Acclamation.
In the San Gabriel, Jeranimo finished second again, but this time to Norvsky after a hard fought race in the stretch, but was off the mark in his 2012 debut.
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