Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Cool Cowboy, Benzel return
ARCADIA, Calif. – Cool Cowboy, a winner of two grouplevel stakes in Dubai in the last 16 months, is back in the United States for the first time since late 2014 for a summerand-fall campaign that trainer Seth Benzel and owner Zaur Sekrekov of Russia hope will lead to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in November.
The first start of that campaign comes in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita, Cool Cowboy’s American graded stakes debut. He ran in eight group stakes in Dubai from 2015 to March of this year.
Benzel, who trained in New York as recently as 2014 and was a jockey’s agent there a year later, has only one horse in training in Cool Cowboy, a 6-year-old by Kodiak Kowboy who has won 8 of 24 starts. The San Carlos will be Cool Cowboy’s first race since a fifth behind the New Yorkbased Mind Your Biscuits in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai on March 25.
Cool Cowboy arrived in California in early May.
“We hope he runs a good race and it’s something we can improve on,” Benzel said.
Cool Cowboy won stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, Prairie Meadows, and Mountaineer Park in 2013 and 2014 for trainer Dale Bennett before being sent to Dubai in the winter of 201415. In Dubai, Cool Cowboy won 3 of 14 starts, including the Group 3 Al Shindagha Sprint at about six furlongs at Meydan in February.
“He’s been a productive horse over there,” Benzel said. “The owner decided it was worth bringing him over here.”
Cool Cowboy will be Benzel’s first runner in the United States since Zee Bros finished seventh in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga in August 2014. In 2010, he trained Dynaslew to two graded stakes wins at Belmont Park and Saratoga. More recently, Benzel trained in Dubai.
Benzel said he and Sekrekov chose to bring Cool Cowboy to California this summer in hopes that the competition will be easier than in New York.
“We thought the depth was a little smaller than on the East Coast,” Benzel said.
The San Carlos has a projected field of six, led by Ransom the Moon, the easy winner of the Kona Gold Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs in his stakes debut on May 20; Danzing Candy, the easy winner of the Grade 3 Lone Star Park Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on May 28; and Kobe’s Back, who won the race in 2016, when it was run in March. Kobe’s Back was fourth in the Kona Gold Stakes.
The Santa Anita springsummer meeting ends on Tuesday, and there are two stakes each day on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday, July 4.
Saturday’s program includes the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes, a $100,000 race for fillies and mares at a mile on turf. The first 2-year-old stakes of the year – the Landaluce Stakes for fillies and the Santa Anita Juvenile – will be run Sunday. Both races are worth $100,000 and will be run at 5 1/2 furlongs.
Tuesday’s main race is the Grade 3 American Stakes at a mile on turf. Om, second by a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint here last November, is set to have his first start of 2017 in the $100,000 race. On Wednesday, Om worked five furlongs in 1:01.60.
In other works, West Coast, the winner of the Easy Goer Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10, worked five furlongs in 1:00.60. Trainer Bob Baffert did not state a race goal, but the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby on July 15 is an option.
Baffert worked St. Patrick’s Day three furlongs in 38 seconds. St. Patrick’s Day is an unraced 2-year-old full brother to American Pharoah, the winner of the 2015 Triple Crown.
Dickson takes new position
Kevin Dickson, formerly the farm manager at Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, Calif., will take the job of farm manager at Barton Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez, Calif., in August, the farm announced on Wednesday.
Barton Thoroughbreds, owned by Southern California businessman Richard Barton, is finalizing the purchase of Magali Farm, a deal currently in escrow that is expected to close July 31.
Dickson helped to oversee the transition of Vessels Stallion Farm, a Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred facility, to its current status as Ocean Breeze Farm, for Thoroughbreds. Scoop Vessels died in a plane crash in 2010. The property was sold by his family in late 2015.
The Barton family has increased its Thoroughbred holdings in recent years to include the first-year stallion Champ Pegasus and more than 200 mares, many acquired at breeding stock sales in Kentucky.
Dickson’s hiring was announced in a statement released by Kate Barton, Richard Barton’s daughter, who manages the family’s racing holdings.