{"id":699,"date":"2014-05-13T18:53:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T18:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.linda-rice.com\/?p=699"},"modified":"2014-05-13T18:55:17","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T18:55:17","slug":"winners-circle-horse-kid-cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/winners-circle-horse-kid-cruz\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners Circle Horse – Kid Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kid<\/a><\/p>\n

BY RON MITCHELL<\/strong>
\nEach time Steven Brandt would acquire a new horse for his Vina Del Mar Thoroughbreds, his mother, Shirley, would respond somewhat skeptically, \u201cOh, no, you didn\u2019t spend more money on horses.\u201d That is, until he informed her last winter that he had claimed a son of Lemon Drop Kid named Kid Cruz for $50,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I told her about this horse and that we had nominated him to the Triple Crown, she said \u2018You\u2019re going to the Triple Crown, and you\u2019re going to win,\u2019 \u201d Brandt recalled recently. His mother died in January after a lengthy illness, so she was unable to share in the joy Kid Cruz has brought to Brandt with his first two stakes wins\u2014the Private Terms Stakes at Laurel Park in March and the Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in April. And while a setback precluded the colt from a scheduled run in the TwinSpires.com Wood Memorial (gr. I) and forced his connections to abandon plans to run in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), Kid Cruz is on track to contest the May 17 Preakness Stakes (gr. I).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dream to go to the Derby, and it\u2019s disappointing he did not get that chance,\u201d Brandt said. \u201cI\u2019m pretty confident that if everything goes as well (in the Preakness), he\u2019ll be right there.\u201d Brandt, 56, is semi-retired from the telecommunications industry and as a consultant. He now spends most of his time working on improving the stable he operates with his life partner, Rick Boylan, also 56.<\/p>\n

After previously racing a modest stable in the 1980s and \u201990s, Brandt was out of racing for awhile before returning in 2005. On one of his regular trips to the Ocala Breeders\u2019 Sales Co.\u2019s April sale of 2-year-olds in training about three years ago, he had a chance meeting with New York-based trainer Linda Rice.<\/p>\n

He visited Rice\u2019s stable in New York, and the two eventually hooked up. Brandt and Boylan now have four or five horses in training with her at any one time. \u201cEvery year I have been trying to learn from my mistakes and trying to improve the quality of my horses,\u201d Brandt said.
\nBred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall, Kid Cruz was purchased by Black Swan Stable for $80,000 from the Select Sales consignment at the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale. Seventh in his career debut over a firm turf course at Aqueduct, Kid Cruz was entered for a $50,000 tag in a maiden claimer on the main track at Aqueduct Nov. 22. Brandt, who spends a lot of time watching televised races to prospect for future purchases, was struck by Kid Cruz\u2019 presence on the screen when he ran on turf and made a mental note to look for the horse. He attributed the poor performance to a lack of desire to race on grass.
\nMaking his main track debut, Kid Cruz won the mile test by six lengths and changed barns after being claimed by Rice on behalf of Vina Del Mar Thoroughbreds. With a case of apparent seller\u2019s remorse, representatives of Black Swan contacted Rice about purchasing a minority interest in the colt not long after he changed barns. Brandt initially resisted, but after being approached again, he relented. Black Swan is now a partner in Kid Cruz. Given a break of several months, Kid Cruz returned with a solid second in allowance company before making the leap into stakes company in the Private Terms. Kid Cruz got off to a slow start for jockey Julian Pimentel in the 11\u00bb8-mile stakes, and at one point was some 25 lengths behind the leader before unleashing a powerful move from last to first to win by four lengths.
\n\u201cHe was like a monster,\u201d said Brandt. Following the race, Brandt found a copy of his mother\u2019s memorial service in his pocket and considered that a good omen, given her initial assessment of the colt. \u201cThis horse was the first one she ever said anything to me about,\u201d Brandt said. \u201cI thought that (stakes win) is the most wonderful gift I could get.\u201d For Kid Cruz\u2019 next start in the April 19 Federico Tesio at Pimlico, Brandt brought his mother\u2019s memorial program along, this time placing it on his clubhouse table. The colt responded with another convincing win and stamping him as a possible Preakness contender.
\n\u201cNo matter what happens to this horse, it\u2019s been wonderful,\u201d Brandt said ofKid Cruz\u2019 success.<\/p>\n

Offical Source – Bloodhorse.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY RON MITCHELL Each time Steven Brandt would acquire a new horse for his Vina Del Mar Thoroughbreds, his mother, Shirley, would respond somewhat skeptically, \u201cOh, no, you didn\u2019t spend more money on horses.\u201d That is, until he informed her… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}