Friday, January 2, 2009

Victorina in Friday's Paseana Handicap at Santa Anita

Trainer Greg Gilchrist runs the hard-hitting Victorina, a Northern California-based mare who has been off the board only three times in 23 starts while posting a 12-6-2 record, in today's $70,000 Paseana Handicap. Owned by the estate of Harry Aleo, the 5-year-old Florida-bred will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano.

The complete field for the Paseana Handicap, with jockeys and weights in post position order: Double Trouble, Garrett Gomez, 118; You Lift Me Up, Mike Smith, 117; Victorina, Rafael Bejarano, 117; Island Hop, Martin Garcia, 113; Chocolate Lava, Joel Rosario, 115, and Forest Melody, Joseph Talamo, 115.

The race is named for Paseana, an Argentine-bred mare brought to the United States by Sid and Jenny Craig, and for whom the Craigs would eventually name their Rancho Paseana in Del Mar, California. (See magazine profile on Ted Aroney and the Craigs here.)

Trained by Ron McAnally, Pasaena won 19 races from 36 starts, ten of which were Grade 1, including the Spinster Stakes, and the Santa Margarita, Apple Blossom, Milady, and Santa Maria handicaps. Her career earnings totaled more than $3 million. She earned consecutive Eclipse Awards as Champion Older Mare in 1992 and 1993.

In 2001, Paseana was inducted in the United States Racing Hall of Fame. She died in 2006 at Haras San Ignacio de Loyola in Argentina.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary,

Sorry I missed you at GGF. I was swamped with the holidays. Prescient post about Victorina. She looked good again. You gotta love a horse that runs hard every time out. She is a personal favorite of mine as well as Greg. Let me know if you want to chat at some point about the movie. I'm sure your readers would get a kick out of the backstory. Hope you had a good break and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best,
John

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