Reneesgotzip Revved Up for Rancho Bernardo

Reneesgotzip will put a perfect record at Del Mar on the line when she defends her title in the $150,000 Grade III Rancho Bernardo Handicap on Sunday.

The 5-year-old daughter of City Zip, owned by the Lanni Family Trust and trained by Peter Miller, has three wins in as many starts over the Polytrack main course with the narrowest margin of victory being 3 ½ lengths. Reneesgotzip won the CERF Stakes in 2012 by the 3 ¼ margin, took an allowance event in July of last year by 5 ¼ lengths and then dominated four rivals in the Rancho Bernardo wire-to-wire by 4 ¼ lengths, covering the 6 ½ furlongs in a track record 1:14.48.

Reneesgotzip followed up the 2013 Rancho Bernardo by dead-heating for second, a half-length beind Mizdirection,  in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita but has gone unraced since then. The earner of $795,460 lifetime has had knee problems and bone chips removed in the past, a possible consequence of her natural speed.

“We’re very happy to have her back and she’s training like her old self,” Miller said.  “We’ll let her bounce out of there and do her thing. She’s awful fast.”

An indication that the layoff had not diminished the zip of Reneesgotzip was a  1:10.20 workout for six furlongs on August 2 at San Luis Rey Downs. 

“I did a double take on my watch,” Miller said. “But she did it very easily. She was breezing, in hand, and she galloped out strongly so we’re ready.

“If she runs her race, she’ll be very tough to beat.”

The field, from the rail out: Judy the Beauty (Mike Smith, 7-5), Fashion Plate (Rafael Bejarano, 4-1), Reneesgotzip  (Corey Nakatani, 8-5), Sagebrush Queen (Edwin Maldonado, 15-1), Amaranth (Dennis Carr, 10-1) and Madame Cactus (Joe Talamo, 10-1).