Greyvitos wins Springboard Mile after surviving ‘nightmare’ fire

By Jonathan Lintner

Trainer Adam Kitchingman feared for all his horses, but especially Greyvitos, when the deadly Lilac Fire spread to the San Luis Rey Downs training center earlier this month.

Given he operates a small stable, “You don’t get many opportunities to have a horse like this,” Kitchingman said.

Greyvitos showed how special he is Sunday, overcoming an outside post position to win the $400,000 Springboard Mile Stakes at Remington Park.

The colt was among the first shipped out of San Luis Rey Downs, where more than 40 horses died, and managed a return to the work tab the following weekend. But the blaze left a lasting impact on his connections.

“It was a nightmare," Kitchingman said. "It really was devastating to see what happened and to go through that. I hope I never have to do it again.”

Consider Sunday an emotional turning point in the recovery.

In addition to offering a rich purse, the Springboard Mile for the first time also awarded qualifying points toward next year’s Kentucky Derby on a 10-4-2-1 scale -- a major draw for shippers to the Oklahoma oval.

A son of Malibu Moon, Greyvitos entered off a longshot victory sprinting in Del Mar’s Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes. As one of the top picks this time around, he took to two turns — and surely traveled longest of them all — in the Springboard Mile.

Jockey Victor Espinoza hustled his mount early in his first trip to Remington Park but still had to run through the five path into the first turn. Greyvitos moved inward a bit up the back stretch, hit the lead into the turn and hit the wire under only mild urging from Espinoza.

The 3-1 shot rolled to a stakes-record final time of 1:37.14 with Combatant, the 9-5 favorite, second back 2 1/4 lengths. Kingsville ran from off the pace to finish third.

"I wanted to wait a little bit longer, but it seemed like the other horses didn’t really want it in front of me so I took a shot," Espinoza said. "I felt like I had the best horse in the race, and he just ran and opened it up.”

With 10 points toward the 2018 Kentucky Derby, Greyvitos is even on the leaderboard with the likes of Grade 1 winners Free Drop Billy, Firenze Fire and McKinzie along with recent Remsen Stakes winner Catholic Boy.

Greyvitos broke his maiden in the Bob Hope at third asking, doing so at 19.9-1 — and as he showed a new approach going to the early lead. While unable to set the pace Sunday, he did find clear going throughout on his way to a second straight stakes score.

“The last six months he’s really blossomed and really shown he’s a nice horse," Kitchingman said. "The last two weeks I didn’t know if I was going to be training him. We’ve been getting a lot of offers from the 'big boys,' and I thought for sure the owners were going to sell him. Then we went through the fire. Shipping all around the country, it’s been a rollercoaster.”