After
winning the El Joven, a one-mile turf race at Retama Park near San
Antonio, Texas, last Saturday night, Tequila Factor was on a van headed
back to trainer Ingrid Mason’s Chicago base when his connections called
an audible. The Pure Prize colt arrived at Keeneland around 5:30 a.m. on
Monday and is now stabled in Barn 42, awaiting a possible run in the
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) on November 5 at Churchill Downs.
“I
told my van driver about halfway through his trip that he needed to go
to Keeneland,” said Aaron Wilkey, racing manager for Tequila Factor’s
owner, Coby Tresner of Chicago. “He wasn’t too far out of the way. He
just made a short detour and came to Keeneland.”
Tequila
Factor, who was offered at the 2010 Keeneland September Yearling Sale,
began his career on Arlington’s Polytrack, winning a six-furlong
claiming race in his third start on July 23. He hit the road and won the
7½-furlong Sunny’s Halo on turf at Louisiana Downs on August 6 and was
fourth there in the one-mile Sunday Silence on turf on September 10.
After winning the El Joven, Tequila Factor has three wins in six starts
and earnings of $94,746.
A
maximum of 14 starters are allowed in each of the Breeders’ Cup races,
and a field selection system is used to select runners if the fields are
oversubscribed. Pre-entries will be taken Monday, October 24, and
announced two days later.
“I’m
thinking he’s got the earnings to get in,” Wilkey said about Tequila
Factor. “It’s wait and see. I’ve also inquired about some people either
partnering on the horse with me or purchasing the horse.”
Another
opportunity to purchase Tequila Factor could come on November 19. The
colt is Hip 3596 in the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale catalog
and will be offered by Vinery Sales, Agent V.