Sano’s rough ride to the top

As much as anyone, Jesus “Chino” Prada understands the saga and savvy of his close friend Antonio Sano.

That is, how Sano became the winningest horse trainer in Venezuela, then after a harrowing experience as a kidnapping victim, left his native country and rebuilt his success from scratch in the United States.

Sano, with 3,338 wins in Venezuela and 567 more in North America since 2010, will seek the biggest prize of his career when he saddles Gunnevera in Saturday’s $16 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park.

But Prada, assistant trainer and longtime friend, was with Sano during his humble beginning at the Valencia Hippodrome after they graduated together from Venezuela horse training school in 1988.

“The first thing is over 30 years in this business,” Prada says of Sano’s ability to get the most out of horses. “The second thing is we come from a cheapy track, [working with] different cheapy horses.

“When you’re claiming a cheapy horse you find any problem — a knee, a tendon … In Venezuela there’s more problems. And we’ve got over 30 years working with the problems. “In America, it’s more easy.” There was nothing easy about the route that took Sano to where he is now. Details about him being kidnapped and held for ransom twice received widespread media attention last year as he campaigned Gunnevera in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Breeders’ Cup.

In the second instance of kidnapping, in 2009, he was held for 36 days chained to the wall of a windowless room until his family was able to raise the ransom money. After he was freed, he realized he had to leave Venezuela.

He ultimately settled with his family in Weston and began his second career in racing at Gulfstream Park.

“In Venezuela, my barn had 182 horses. Here, no horses,” he says, adding, “My father tell me, you see up, up up. You have no limits in life.”

Starting with two claimers, Sano went on to saddle 37 winners in 218 starts in the U.S. in 2010 and has been among the leading trainers at Gulfstream since then.

Now he has 60 horses in his stable. But he’s never had one quite like Gunnevera.

Ironically, he too was a cheapy horse.

The striking chestnut colt was an orphan whose mother, Unbridled Rage, died soon after giving birth.

Sano saw something in Gunnevera at Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale in 2015 and was able to purchase him in the auction for $16,000 for the owners of Peacock Racing Stable.

So far he has returned $1,627,200 in career earnings in 14 starts, including five wins.

“Other horses are good horses, but this is a special horse for me,” Sano says. “He’s so smart.”

Based at Sano’s stable at Gulfstream Park West, Gunnevera goes into the Pegasus Cup as the hometown connection in the race. Luis Saez, leader in the jockey standings for the current meet at Gulfstream, will be aboard.

Gunnevera has three wins in seven starts at Gulfstream Park, including the Fountain of Youth Stakes last March, and his most recent win in the Tangelo Stakes in August.

He was third there in the Florida Derby, before finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs and fifth in the Preakness at Pimplico.

Sano hasn’t raced him since the Breeders’ Cup in November, when he finished in a dead heat for fifth place with Arrogate, winner of last year’s inaugural Pegasus Cup.

All four of the horses who finished ahead of him at the Breeders’ Cup will run Saturday.

Gunnevera is listed as the fifth choice at 12-1 in future-book odds at the Race & Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas. Gun Runner, expected to be named Horse of the Year at the Eclipse Awards dinner at Gulfstream Park on Thursday night, is the strong favorite at 3-5.

Nonetheless, Sano’s team exudes confidence based on Gunnevera’s familiarity with the track at Gulfstream and his recent workouts.

Saturday, in his final work before the race, he breezed five furlongs in 1:01. It was the fourth-fastest of 31 at the distance.

“He worked very, very good,” Sano said afterward. “I’m so excited for my horse to run in the race.”

Gun Runner, who arrived in South Florida late last week, galloped five furlongs from the half-mile pole to the finish line in 1:02.11 on Sunday at Gulfstream. West Coast, one of Bob Baffert’s two Pegasus contenders along with Collected, also went five furlongs Sunday, clocking 1:00 flat at Santa Anita.

Gunnevera will be running on behalf of William Gallo, a New Yorker who was one of the stakeholders who put up $1 million apiece for a spot in the Pegasus. Gunnevera’s Venezuelan owner Salomon Del-Vallee reached an agreement with Gallo last month on the partnership for the race.

But for Sano, the race is all about the horse, and he has been pointing Gunnevera toward the Pegasus since the Breeders’ Cup. He was adamant in steering the owner away from running in a December race.

“For me, he’s a better horse right now,” Sano says outside the stall where Gunnevera is munching hay. “More mature, stronger. He’s a different horse.”

Regardless of how it turns out Saturday, it’s been a long run from that “cheapy track” of Sano’s past to the world’s richest horse race.

C.M. GUERRERO/EL NUEVO HERALD Antonio Sano, who is the winningest horse trainer in Venezuela, built his racing empire from scratch after coming to the U.S. after being being kidnapped in his native country.