After moving from Louisiana to Kentucky last week, undefeated 3-year-old Doncho is expected to make his stakes debut in the Lafayette Stakes at Keeneland April 5. For owner Jose Lopez, head of JAL Racing, the gelding is blazing a long-awaited trail from Puerto Rico to the Kentucky bluegrass.
Lopez may not be a familiar face at the highest levels of racing, but his success with Doncho is far from beginner’s luck. He bought his first horse in Puerto Rico in 2007 and described a rapid progression thereafter.
“I became a very small owner of one horse, then two and three,” Lopez said. “By 2013, I had 10, 15 horses from the States and Puerto Rico.”
Though Lopez has occasionally ventured elsewhere, his horses almost exclusively compete at Hipodromo Camarero, his home island’s racetrack. But in 2017, tragic events forced him to test his ambitions.
In June 2017, Lopez purchased a filly named Alter Moon at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales June 2-Year-Olds & Horses of Racing Age Sale for $22,000. He meant to bring her home for her debut, but in September of that year, Hurricane Maria swiftly made horse racing an afterthought as Puerto Rico dealt with thousands of deaths and nationwide shortages.
With his homeland crushed by the natural disaster, Lopez had to follow his trainer, Jose Velez, and move his newest filly to Florida. With her fate—and Lopez’s—seemingly guided by tragedy, Alter Moon flourished at Gulfstream Park, breaking her maiden at 3 in her second career start. In June 2018, she won the Azalea Stakes, giving Lopez his first stakes victory outside of Puerto Rico.
Soon after Alter Moon’s win in the Azalea, Lopez put her up for auction at the Fasig-Tipton Summer Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale and sold her to Peter Brant for $675,000. It was a massive windfall for Lopez, but there also was a nagging sense of loss.
“My intentions were to keep running the filly, but my trainer didn’t want to go to Saratoga,” Lopez said. “So being a little bit inexperienced, I sold her.”
Alter Moon wins the 2018 Azalea Stakes at Gulfstream Park
At risk of losing Velez, Lopez felt that he was not prepared to handle a high-caliber horse in the States at the time. The experience still planted a seed, however, and after a few years, Lopez gradually embraced the idea of re-entering the racing world beyond Puerto Rico. He bought Doncho last year for $72,000 at the OBS June 2-year-olds in training sale.
As soon as Lopez had the thought of racing in Kentucky, he said he contacted trainer Michelle Lovell. She was recommended to him by several colleagues in Puerto Rico and has earned a reputation as a highly efficient trainer.
“I was looking for some more attention for my colt instead of a big barn, where you get lost,” Lopez said. “Sometimes you can’t even talk to the trainers. … Michelle has been so hands-on with Doncho, I’m telling you, she’s done such a great job.”
Lovell and Lopez oversaw a difficult period during Doncho’s progression as a 2-year-old, during which they decided to geld him. After missing nearly his entire juvenile season to recover and train, he made an emphatic statement at the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Dec. 30 when he led gate-to-wire to win his debut by five widening lengths.
Racing in New Orleans at six furlongs again in February, he was similarly dominant in a $100,000 optional claiming race, winning by 4 1/2 lengths. He came out of both races sound, and Lovell said he traveled safely to Kentucky last week. She does not expect the extra furlong in Friday’s Lafayette to be an issue.
“We think he’s a really nice horse, and he deserves the opportunity,” Lovell said. “The seven furlongs, stretching him out to that, is something we circled early on for his start at Keeneland.”
Ridden by Colby Hernandez and Jaime Torres in his first two starts, Doncho will be ridden by Cristian Torres for his first race in Kentucky. Torres, a Puerto Rican native, is currently the leading rider at Oaklawn Park.
“He hasn’t done anything wrong in his races,” Torres said. “Even in the morning, I’ve been watching the workouts, and he seems to be a pretty smart horse. Hopefully, we can get a good post and show up.”
If Doncho takes another step forward in the Lafayette, Lovell and Lopez intend to point him toward the Pat Day Mile (G2) at Churchill Downs May 4. It would be Lopez’s first graded stakes attempt outside Puerto Rico since Alter Moon’s Gulfstream stint in 2018.
As for any considerations to sell his newest star in the near future, as he did with Alter Moon, it seems that Lopez has already dropped a hint that he won’t go so quietly this time around. “Doncho” is not Spanish or English, but Bulgarian.
“Priceless,” Lopez translated proudly.
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