Pender plans out future for Ultimate Eagle and Jeranimo
Back in 2010, the 5-year-old Michael Pender trained horse, Jeranimo, won the Grade 2 Strub Stakes over a distance of 1 1/8 miles on synthetic surface and then in the same year landed the Grade 2 San Gabriel Handicap on turf on the same distance as Strub Stakes.
The versatility and fitness of the 5-year-old horse has prompted trainer Michael Pender to lay out a similar path for Jeranimo for the year 2012, as the conditioner intends to send out the Florida bred son of Congaree, out of mare Jera by Jeblar, on the same designs for a repeat in both stakes races.
This year, Jeranimo picked up his first victory late in October in the Grade 2 Oak Tree Mile at Santa Anita over a distance of 1 mile under Martin Garcia.
He went on to defeat the likes of Mr. Commons in second and John Johny Jak in third, while covering the 1 mile distance in 1 minute and 32.61 seconds.
It was a prep race for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile on turf, but at Churchill Downs on 5 November, 2011, Jeranimo finished a non threatening seventh to winner Court Vision, but bounced back impressively on the back of his defeat to land the Grade 2 Citation Handicap at about 1 1/16 miles at Hollywood Park on 26 November.
Michael Pender is no short of versatile runners in his barn, and another stand out performer for this year has been the 3-year-old colt, Ultimate Eagle, who is unbeaten in his past 5 starts, including back to back wins in the Grade 2 Oak Tree Derby at about 1 1/8 miles and Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at 1 ¼ miles.
“Ultimate Eagle is pointing for the (Grade II) San Fernando (Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt on Jan. 14),” Pender said. “He’ll run on the dirt, which is a surface he seems to like more than the grass. He’s four for seven lifetime. His three losses came on Hollywood’s synthetic. Had we been running him on dirt, he’d be undefeated. That’s how good he’s been.”
Tags: