The $400,000, Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes Saturday at Del Mar provides the winner an automatic entry into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint this fall. The six-furlong sprint is highlighted by the phenomenal sprinter The Chosen Vron, who has an opportunity to win the Bing Crosby for the second year in a row.
In last year’s Bing Crosby, The Chosen Vron went to post at odds of 9-2 but he will likely be the betting favorite this year based on the fact that he’s won five stakes races in a row going back to last November. However, with five of the other eight contenders entering this race off of victories, the outcome is far from set in stone. One of those entering off a win is Happy Jack, who was victorious last month in the Grade 2 Triple Bend Stakes. Another is Closethegame Sugar, who ships in from Kentucky after posting consecutive stakes wins including the Kelly’s Landing Stakes four weeks ago. Straight No Chaser won the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes in May of last year and has only run once since – a fourth in the Grade 3 Runhappy Stakes in May – but he has a shot to rebound to stakes-winning form. Similarly, Anarchist missed by a head in the 2023 Bing Crosby and then won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes before taking 10 months off and returning to finish sixth in the Kelly’s Landing. Jackstown and Roll On Big Joe both step into stakes competition for the first time off strong wins in allowance company, while See Through It has won two races in a row and was third in the Grade 3 Palos Verdes Stakes in February. Giant Game has not sprinted since January 2023. He won the Grade 3 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap last July around two turns.
Analysis and main contenders:
Although The Chosen Vron enters this year’s Bing Crosby Stakes off a win in the Thor’s Echo Stakes, the same race he won last year prior to winning this race, I believe Straight No Chaser can pull off the mild upset by using his sensational early speed. In April of 2023, Straight No Chaser earned a career best 113 Equibase Speed Figure in an allowance race when leading from the start and then romping home in “ridden out” fashion by 7 ¼ lengths. Seven weeks later, he duplicated the effort with a 7 ¼-length win in the Maryland Sprint Stakes, leading from the start and ridden out to victory. In that race, he earned a 109 figure, which likely would have been much higher if he was asked to run harder in the final sixteenth of a mile. Something went awry after that, as Straight No Chaser went on the sidelines until reappearing in the Runhappy Stakes in May at the Belmont at the Big A meet in New York. He finished fourth in that race, but I believe his effort can be totally ignored because Straight No Chaser stumbled out of the gate from the inside post position and started last of five, and then was rushed up to lead before tiring. In both his wins last April and May, Straight No Chaser easily got to the front from the start and that was the key to his dominating efforts. He had no such chance in the Runhappy. For the Bing Crosby he gets off the rail, and since shipping back to California, Straight No Chaser has put in some spectacular workouts which tells us he has all his speed and will get the lead from the start with a clean break. From there he can play “come catch me,” and it’s important to note that the 113 figure he earned last April is the same as the 113 figure The Chosen Vron earned winning this race last year.
The Chosen Vron doesn’t need much talking up as he’s won 18 of 23 career races including five in a row, all stakes. After winning the 2023 Bing Crosby with a 113 Equibase Speed Figure, The Chosen Vron finished fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Just two weeks later, The Chosen Vron won the Cary Grant Stakes at Del Mar, earning a new career-best 116 figure. That was the first of five stakes race wins in a row, including an effort that earned a 115 figure in the Kona Gold Stakes in April. There’s little doubt his best race is good enough to win this year’s Bing Crosby, and the only question concerning whether The Chosen Vron can be a repeat winner of this race is whether he can run down Straight No Chaser if that horse is allowed an uncontested lead for the first half-mile.
Happy Jack and Closethegame Sugar both can win Saturday but appear a tiny bit less probable than Straight No Chaser and The Chosen Vron. Happy Jack just won the Triple Bend Stakes on June 1 with a 110 figure to prove he belongs at the level, but just prior to that in the Kona Gold Stakes he was no match for The Chosen Vron as he was a half-length behind that one with a half-mile to run and was behind by three-quarters of a length at the finish. Closethegame Sugar won the Mahony Stakes last August on turf, and then two races later won a handicap race, earning a then career-best 107 figure. After taking a bit more than seven months off to mature, the now 4-year-old finished second in his 2024 debut and then won the Aristides Stakes and Kelly’s Landing Stakes in succession. He earned a strong 109 figure in the Kelly’s Landing which, if improved upon, makes him a contender as well.
The rest of the field, with their best Equibase Speed Figures in similar races, is Anarchist (114), Giant Game (89), Jackstown (103), Roll on Big Joe (102) and See Through It (105).
Win Contenders:
Straight No Chaser
The Chosen Vron
Happy Jack
Superfecta
8-6-9-2
8-6-9-2
$16
Superfecta
8-6-9-2
8-6-9-2
$16
