Manchurian High Soars in Sunshine Millions Turf
Using her life savings and a loan from her parents, Lilli Kurtinecz purchased the horse of her dreams last winter. Nearly a year later, the investment continues to pay big dividends for the 29-year-old owner-trainer.
Late-running Manchurian High swept to the lead on the far outside at the top of the stretch and kept going, pulling away to a 3 ¼-length victory in the $100,000 Sunshine Millions Turf on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
The 1 1/16-mile Turf was the second of five stakes and one of two on grass during the 13th annual Sunshine Millions program.
“It feels fantastic,” Kurtinecz said. “I won’t really know for a few days. It’s all kind of a blur.”
Kurtinecz purchased Manchurian High from No Palla Stables, trained by her former boss, John Secor, who she worked for on an off for a decade. She planned to train the horse for the 4-mile Maryland Hunt Cup steeplechase, but the 7-year-old gelding continued to excel over the flats.
He won the Laurel Turf Cup last September at Laurel Park and ended 2014 finishing third, beaten 1 ½ lengths, in the W.L. McKnight (G3) on December 27 at Gulfstream Park.
“He’s never run over the jumps but he did run on the flat at a steeplechase meet,” Kurtinecz said. “He keeps doing this, so it’s hard to convince anyone to put him over the jumps right now.”
Breaking from post seven under jockey Luis Saez, Manchurian High ran near the back of a nine-horse field as long shots Breitling Flyer and Decisive Moment led through a quarter-mile in 23.56 seconds and a half in 46.96.
Saez steadily gained ground along the outside on the backstretch before taking over from Decisive Moment and sprinting clear, hitting the wire in 1:43.03 and paying $8.20 as the 3-1 third choice.
Reporting Star came on to finish second, 1 ¼ lengths ahead of Bad Debt, who hit the board in the Turf for the fourth consecutive year.
“The trip was very nice,” Saez said. “Everyone was going [early]. I broke good and when I got to the half-mile pole, I saw everybody stopping and I had a lot of horse, so I felt like we were going to win the race. It was perfect.”
The victory for Saez came a day after injuring his leg when his mount reared in the starting gate prior to Friday’s fifth race. He was taken to Memorial Regional, where X-rays showed no fractures.
“I feel very glad, because when that happened yesterday I thought I broke my leg,” Saez said. “We went to the hospital and everything was good, so today when I got up I was walking good and I felt like I could ride today. We came here and I rode, and I feel great because my horse ran good today. When he came into the stretch, he responded and won easy.”
Source: Gulfstream Park