Tres Borrachos returns to winner’s circle in San Diego

Tres Borrachos earned his first win outside of Hollywood Park when taking Del Mar’s San Diego (Benoit Photos)

The last time Tres Borrachos crossed the finish line
first came in May of 2009. On Saturday, the bay gelding finally got back
to his winning ways when flying down the center of the stretch to take
the $200,000 Grade 2

San Diego at Del Mar. The veteran performer easily ran down longtime
leader Kevlar Kid nearing the wire, passing
that rival to be 1 1/4 lengths clear on the line under jockey Rafael
Bejarano.

Making just his second start for new connections in owner George
Hicker and trainer Marty Jones, Tres Borrachos improved on his
eighth-place run in last year’s San Diego, which took place just three
races back for the six-year-old. He concluded 2010 with a well-beaten
ninth in the Ralph M. Hinds Pomona Handicap and opened this season with a nice
third against allowance rivals at Hollywood Park. Tres Borrachos’ win in
the San Diego was his first outside of Hollywood and pushed his career
earnings to $760,257. He paid $18.80, $8.20 and $5 as the 8-1 sixth
choice when stopping the clock in 1:42 3/5.

Kevlar Kid was the favorite in Saturday’s San Diego and appeared
ready to wire the 1 1/16-mile Polytrack test. Craving out fractions of
:23 2/5, :47 1/5, 1:12 1/5 and 1:36 3/5, the 3-1 pick was going for his
third straight win while making his stakes bow in this spot. Alas, he
couldn’t withstand the rush of Tres Borrachos and barely held second by
a head as Spurrier came spurting through on the inside.

Tres Borrachos ran a straight line all the way to the wire (Alex Evers/EquiSport Photos)

Tres Borrachos began his racing career under the tutelage of trainer
and former co-owner Beau Greely, breaking his maiden at Hollywood Park
in 2007 and putting himself squarely in the next year’s Triple Crown
picture with placings in the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby and Grade 3 El Camino Real
Derby. He round up ninth in the 2008 Grade 1 Preakness prior to a
runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap, then earned his first stakes
score while taking just the second win of his career in the Grade 2 Swaps, once again at Hollywood.

Tres Borrachos hit a dry spell in his next six races, not finishing
in the money, until finally returning to the winner’s circle at
Hollywood against optional claiming rivals in May 2009. A nice second in
the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup followed that effort, but he once again
posted unplaced runs in 10 of his next 11 races. Tres Borrachos has
shown new life in his two starts this season and now boasts a 31-4-2-5
career mark.

Bred in Kentucky by Robert Shapiro, John J. Greely IV and Phil
Houchens, Tres Borrachos was a $37,000 Keeneland September yearling RNA
before finally selling for $7,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall
yearling. He is out of Grade 3-placed stakes winner Pete’s Fancy
and counts as half-siblings this year’s James W. Murphy victor Chinglish as well as a yearling colt and 2011 colt,
both by Henrythenavigator.