Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Roy H back in Crosby
DEL MAR, Calif. – In two starts at Del Mar last year Roy H was essentially robbed of a win when he finished a troubled second in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes in July, and ran a career-best race to win the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in November.
A three-time 2017 stakes winner, Roy H won the Eclipse Award as the year’s outstanding sprinter, the first champion for owner Gary Hartunian coming six years after he began actively acquiring Thoroughbreds.
“I almost wanted to call it quits after that,” Hartunian said last weekend. “It can never be that good. It’s been an incredible ride. It puts a smile on my face when I think about it.”
Hartunian, 66, is not going anywhere.
A Los Angeles resident, Hartunian has Roy H among approximately 35 horses in training with Peter Miller. On Saturday at Del Mar, Roy H, whom Hartunian owns with David Bernsen, will start as a heavy favorite in the Grade 1, six-furlong Bing Crosby Stakes, the track’s leading sprint.
The $300,000 Bing Crosby will be a pivotal race for Roy H, who has not started since finishing third in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Sprint in Dubai on March 31. The layoff was scheduled. It was a chance to let Roy H recuperate from the international journey and prepare for a late season campaign geared toward the BC Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.
Similar to last year, the Bing Crosby is an important race toward that goal. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the BC Sprint.
Last summer Roy H was the 8-5 favorite in the Bing Crosby. The scenario that led to his secondplace finish can be described as bizarre. Drefong, the 2016 champion sprinter, ducked in sharply a few strides into the race, crashing into a temporary rail and unseating jockey Mike Smith.
Drefong continued to run with the field, and carried Roy H and Moe Candy wide around the turn. Roy H was fanned six wide on the turn and still managed to rally through the stretch under jockey Paco Lopez to finish second, 1 1/2 lengths behind winner Ransom the Moon.
“I was thinking, what else can happen,” Hartunian recalled. “You draw the race up 100 times and you never think it would happen. I guess I didn’t pray enough to the gambling gods.”
Roy H has not lost in the United States since the Bing Crosby. He won the Santa Anita Sprint Championship last October in his final prep before the BC Sprint.
Roy H won the BC Sprint by a length, closing from third. Hartunian had confidence in the gelding approaching that race.
“He was in total beast mode,” Hartunian said. “I wasn’t worried about him winning that race at all. He was peaking and on top of his game.”
The Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup program was a memorable day for Hartunian. The same afternoon, Stormy Liberal won the BC Turf Sprint for Hartunian and Bernsen.
Roy H had his 2018 debut in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 3, and won by 3 1/2 lengths at 1-5. Jockey Kent Desormeaux hand-rode Roy H to the finish.
In the $2 million Golden Shaheen, Roy H had a slow start and closed well to finish threequarters of a length behind the East Coast-based Mind Your Biscuits.
“He wasn’t like his normal self,” Hartunian said. “He broke bad. Kent said he got [hit] by another jockey’s whip in the stretch and had to restart himself.”
In other ways, the stable has had its share of setbacks in the last year. Hartunian lost runners in the devastating fire that struck the San Luis Rey Downs training center last December.
On Sunday, Bobby Abu Dhabi, owned by Hartunian and Bernsen, died of an apparent internal injury during a workout for the Bing Crosby.
Hartunian, who has a real estate business, races under the stable name Rockingham Ranch. He bought Roy H for $310,000 at the 2015 Keeneland 2-year-olds in training sale. A 6-year-old by More Than Ready, Roy H has won 7 of 19 starts and earned $1,679,765.
The earnings could soar with a successful campaign in coming months.
“Pete [Miller] said he’s doing tremendous,” Hartunian said. “Hopefully, there is no lag in his progress and he can come back as strong.”