Kitchingman has seen fire, rain, and injury

Greyvitos is not part of some racehorse witness protection program. It only seems that way.

From the moment he sparked interest last November while winning the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar, defeating a field that included Mourinho and Run Away, Greyvitos had the look of a colt with a future. What kind of future was unclear, but it figured to be an interesting ride.

Too interesting, as it turned out. Since the Hope, Greyvitos has been evacuated from the fires that swept through part of the San Luis Rey Downs Training Center, found temporary stabling at Del Mar, shipped to Remington Park in Oklahoma to win the $400,000 Springboard Mile, and then took the long way back to California by way of Kentucky.

No sooner had he returned to Del Mar than his trainer, Adam Kitchingman, detected heat in both knees. Small bone chips were surgically removed and the usual recovery period was prescribed. And then, as the tide rose in the fevered swamp of Kentucky Derby anticipation, Greyvitos was pretty much wiped from the grid.

Somebody forgot to tell Greyvitos, though. By February the colt was threatening his keepers with bodily harm if they didn’t loosen his leash. They complied. Since Feb. 26, the gray son of Malibu Moon has worked 3,4, 5, and then 6 furlongs on Tuesday over a drying track at Del Mar, with exercise rider and head traveling lad Fernando Cano in the irons.

“He does whatever you want him to,” Cano said later Tuesday morning as a well-cooled Greyvitos tortured a mouth full of green alfalfa. “He’s our big horse.”

He’ll also take a bite out of you if you drop your guard, but his people indulge his coltish behavior. Greyvitos, after all, is that species of big fish who could take a small stable to great heights. Kitchingman’s name has yet to gain national attention, but his work with stakes winners like Tribal Spy, Dixie High, and Let Em Shine provides ample evidence that he knows what to do with a good horse when one comes his way.

The Triple B Farms of Michelle Boghossian and her family paid $100,000 for Greyvitos as a yearling. Kitchingman had enough faith in the 2-yearold version of the colt to start him off at a mile on grass in early July. The colt tired that day, Kitchingman regrouped, and they resurfaced with a promising third in a maiden sprint at Santa Anita in late October. Still a maiden, Greyvitos took the Bob Hope by 2 1/4 lengths, after which the real adventures commenced.

Kitchingman is among the displaced trainers itching to get back to San Luis Rey Downs, which is scheduled to reopen some time in April. Del Mar has been a godsend for the refugees, and several trainers live in such close proximity that they will miss the brief commute. But the Del Mar backstretch does not winter well, as evidenced this week when fairly light rains left muddy ponds between many of the barns, forcing trainers like Kitchingman and his crew to seek higher, drier ground for something as simple as a walking ring.

Kitchingman, a native Australian, has a home near San Luis Rey, and his barn was spared in the Lilac wildfire of last Dec. 7 that claimed the lives of 46 horses, in addition to seven barns and part of an eighth.

“Our home had some trees burn and smoke damage,” Kitchingman said. “But we were lucky. My next door neighbor lost his house.”

For Kitchingman and his wife, the real horror of the day was being separated from their two young children, who were at home with their nanny while Mom and Dad were kept from the fire area by strict traffic restrictions. Once the family was united, everything else fell into perspective.

“Fernando and the grooms did an awesome job with the horses,” Kitchingman said. As for the kids? Any lingering trauma? “My son, Keaton, is 4,” the trainer said. “He loved it. He thought the fire trucks were just for him, like Christmas. They were parked right in our driveway.”

A setback like knee surgery at the threshold of a talented colt’s 3-year-old campaign is usually enough for his people start thinking about the Haskell Invitational rather than the classics. However, if Greyvitos is the quick healer he seems to be, a race like the Lexington Stakes on April 14 is not out of the question, as long as everything goes perfectly.

“And we know that doesn’t always happen in horse racing,” Kitchingman said. “I suppose it is helpful that he has a few races under his belt. But the thing about him is, he’s still green. He doesn’t like dirt in his face, and he doesn’t like being inside horses. So he’s still got a lot to learn.”

Greyvitos earned 10 Derby points when he won the Springboard Mile, which won’t give him a sniff at the final field, and Kitchingman does not kid himself about the bunch they beat in Oklahoma. Wherever Greyvitos goes next he’ll face considerably tougher competition that will test his obvious speed and class. He will, however, be the only horse in the field sporting a cooler that reads “Lilac Fire Survivor.”

“You’ve got to admit, if it pans out it will be quite a story,” Kitchingman said.