Del Mar Picks | Pat O’Brien Stakes 2024 [Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile]

Aaron previews the 2024 Pat O’Brien Stakes (G2) at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club & gives his top win pick from Saturday’s feature horse race.

Grade 1 winners Senor Buscador & The Chosen Vron are set to square off against 6 other rivals in this “Win & You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Who will punch his ticket to the World Championships?

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The press release:

Fourteen out of 15.

It’s really not supposed to happen in sports. Think baseball – a batter with 14 hits in 15 trips? A pitcher winning 14 out of 15! You know the answer to those. How about basketball? A three-point shooter hitting 14 out of 15? Maybe, but much more likely not. A football quarterback hitting that number of passes? He’ll have his agent working on a new contract right after the game.

But here we are in horse racing and – lucky us – we’ve got a chestnut dandy named The Chosen Vron.

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And though it surely is exceptional, we’ve got the 6-year-old gelding by the late Vronsky working on that 14 out of 15 right now and we get to see him try to add to it Saturday as he heads a nifty crew of eight in the 39th edition of the Pat O’Brien Stakes. The seven-panel spin, which carries Grade II credentials and a $250,000 purse, goes as Race 9 on a 10-race card at the place where the turf meets the surf.

And while he’s the 3/5 morning line favorite to add yet another feather to his cap in the extended sprint, it won’t be easy.

For starters he’ll be hooking into a bay horse that has won more than $12 million – yes, that’s right – in Senor Buscador, the 6-year-old son of Mineshaft who already has some Del Mar credentials, as his victory in last year’s San Diego Handicap shows.

Throw in stakes winner Happy Jack, Raging Torrent and Big City Lights and you can see that the stew has spice aplenty.

But first they all have to beat the streaker, owned by the collective of Sondereker Racing, Robert Felton, Richard Thornburgh and J. Eric Kruljac – the last of those also the happy guy who trains the California-bred wonder.

Hector Berrios, the jock who has been in the saddle for all 15 of the outings that make up the current streak, will, of course, be back aboard on Saturday. And they’ll be trying to add more bucks to his current total of $1,659,678.

The Chosen Vron started his streak back in September of 2022 and that lone hiccup was not without cause. It was in the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita last November where he could only manage to finish fifth against the best sprinters in the world. Let’s give him one for that.

First post for the Saturday card – which will be Day 21 of the 31-day meet – will be at the usual 2 p.m. The Pat O’Brien is scheduled to go shortly after 6 p.m.