Callaghan nabs stakes double with Thunder Road winner True Valour

With heavily favored River Boyne bottled up late Saturday, longshot True Valour rallied from off the pace to take Santa Anita Park's Grade 3, $100,000 Thunder Road Stakes by a half length. The victory both provided trainer Simon Callaghan with his second stakes win on the day and Italian-born Andrea Atzeni, 27, with his first ever Santa Anita stakes victory.

A 5-year-old Irish-bred horse, True Valor got a flat mile over a “good” turf in 1:36.35.  

“We knew there wasn’t probably not going to be that much speed on, but we had to stick to the plan take our time get him to relax and I just said to Andrea I prefer you to come in late than too early," said Callaghan, who also won the Las Virgenes (G2) with Kentucky Oaks hopeful Bellafina.

A close fifth and on the move around the far turn, True Valour wheeled three-wide turning for home and ran down Ohio and Le Ken late to post his first win in four stateside starts. Most recently a close third in a one mile turf classified allowance here on Jan. 13, True Valor was off at 11-1 in a field of six older horses and paid $25.00, $10.00 and $9.20.  

Owned by Qatar Racing, Ltd., True Valour, a Group 3 winner going seven furlongs on turf four starts back in his native Ireland, improved his overall mark to 18: 4-2-6. With the winner’s share of $60,000, he increased his earnings to $235,112.  

“True Valour ran well in his last race, maybe a bit too close to the pace is all," Atzeni said. "Today, I wanted to give him a chance, keep him to the outside. He jumped ok but I didn’t want to be too close to the pace. Obviously I was keeping an eye on Flavien, on River Boyne, obviously the horse to beat.

"He picked up when I picked my stick up and was always good enough to win. It went similar to the races I ride in the U.K."

Fresh off a minor stakes victory going one mile on turf at Turf Paradise Jan. 12, Brazilian-bred Ohio, ever game at age 8, finished a neck in front of Le Ken and paid $6.80 and $6.20 while off at 6-1 with Ruben Fuentes up.  

Argentine-bred Le Ken, who defeated the winner by a half length when second in a classified allowance on Jan. 13, was off at 22-1 with Tyler Baze and paid $9.20 to show while finishing a half length in front of River Boyne, who was full of run when he steadied a sixteenth of a mile out.  

Fractions on the race were 23.94, 48.52, 1:12.89 and 1:24.66.