NEWS
Champion Tomcito settles back in Peru
Posted: Friday, March 19, 2010 2:49 PM
by Michael Burns
Jet Set Racing Stable’s Peruvian champion Tomcito, a U.S. classics hopeful two years ago, has returned to Peru after spending the last year with trainer Tom Albertrani.
Tomcito became a hopeful for the spring classics when finishing third to eventual champion three-year-old male and Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Big Brown in the 2008 Florida Derby (G1) in his first U.S. start.
The Kentucky-bred son of Street Cry (Ire) won two of Peru’s classics as a Northern Hemisphere two-year-old before shipping to the U.S. but failed to regain his competitive level in three U.S. starts last year throat surgery.
Following his third-place finish in the Florida Derby, Tomcito finished sixth as the favorite in the Coolmore Lexington Stakes (G2) at Keeneland Race Course and seventh in the Peter Pan Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park before disappearing from the Triple Crown trail.
Tabbed as Peru’s 2008 champion three-year-old male, Tomcito won four of 11 starts and earned $157,186, including four of his first five starts in Peru by a combined 35 3/4 lengths. He scored victories in the Clasico Ricardo Ortiz de Zevallos (Per-G1) and Clasico Derby Nacional (Peruvian Derby), the second and third legs of the Peruvian Quadruple Crown. He also placed second in the Clasico Polla de Potrillos (Per-G1) (Peruvian Two Thousand Guineas).
Probable future racing or likely stud plans for Tomcito have yet been determined.
"He is just settling back after exiting quarantine, no decision has yet been made by his owners, but he is likely to enter stud this year," said Peru’s leading trainer, Juan Suarez, who conditioned the five-year-old horse in Peru.
Bred by Chesapeake Farm and Darley, Tomcito is out of the unraced Eastern Echo mare Inside Or Outside, a half sister to 2001 Canadian champion turf male and sire Numerous Times and Grade 2-placed stakes winner Ten a Penny
Michael Burns is a South American-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
