Pioneer Prince Race Recap

Unfortunately, Pioneer Prince failed to fire in Sunday’s starter allowance at Santa Anita Park. Your gelding never seemed comfortable from the get-go in his return to the dirt. It all started with a stumble out of the gate, which led to some bumping.

Pioneer Prince was relegated towards the back of the short field while two wide. He traveled between horses down the backside and appeared as if he was going to put in a little bit of a run heading into the turn, but flattened out fairly quickly. Jockey Mike Smith said that while the start did not help, your gelding never traveled as smoothly over the dirt as he did the turf in the past.

It’s safe to say we will remain on the turf moving forward, but in this case, it was certainly worth taking the chance rather than not running until the Del Mar meet begins. This race should not affect when he runs next and he should still remain ready for the beginning of Del Mar.

Pioneer Prince Post Race Update

Pioneer Prince looks to be in good order out of his victory yesterday afternoon at Santa Anita. Your son of Pioneerof the Nile earned a 76 Beyer Speed Figure, which is solid for the level as the par Beyer is 72. We’ll see how he responds once he gets back into a training rhythm, but the logical spot is now a starter allowance, which was part of the reasoning for dropping him into the maiden $50,000 level—so that he’d be eligible. While his effort yesterday would have put him in contention for a win at the maiden special weight level (BSF par of 77), we have now opened up more conditions against easier competition.

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Pioneer Prince Work Update

The main track at Santa Anita was closed today due to weather and will be closed again tomorrow. Pioneer Prince was scheduled to breeze this morning but will now likely breeze on Saturday. The new Santa Anita condition book has been released and is offering a maiden special weight going 6 1/2 furlongs on Saturday, January 14th, which would be the ideal target pending he is able to work on Saturday over a good track and breeze to the barn’s satisfaction. We will follow up this weekend with an additional update.

Pioneer Prince Workout Report

Pioneer Prince breezed five furlongs in 1:01.20 (18/26) this morning at Santa Anita Park. The 2-year-old broke off in the middle of two stablemates (rider with the black vest). He started two lengths behind unraced Spendthrift Farm homebred and stablemate Hornung, coming on the inside at the top of the stretch and finishing up best of the trio. The son of Pioneerof the Nile galloped out six furlongs very well in 1:13 and change according to trainer Richard Mandella. Despite some easier competition vs. recent workmate Yellow Brick, who ran extremely well on debut to finish 3rd yesterday afternoon, this was the best work of late from Pioneer Prince. Following this work, the Mandella barn is confident we will be ready for a maiden special weight in the second condition book which should be released tomorrow.

Pioneer Prince Workout Report

Pioneer Prince worked a bullet five furlongs out of the gate in 59.80 seconds (1/28) this morning at Santa Anita Park. Breezing on the inside of unraced stablemate Yellow Brick (scheduled to debut Dec. 26), the 2-year-old ridgling went strong for the first half-mile, but in the final furlong he did get pretty tired as you will see in the video. While he was second best to his mate in the end, Yellow Brick does hold a fitness edge on Pioneer Prince and was breezing 6 furlongs this morning.

Team Mandella feels our ridgling will need a few more works, which we expected following last week’s breeze, but he will be a likely candidate for a race in the second condition book at Santa Anita (mid-January). Trainer Richard Mandella will continue to put some endurance breezes under him over the next few weeks.