DEL MAR, Calif. (Nov. 8, 2025) – Heavy favorite Man O Rose ran his stakes win streak to three with a speedy victory in Saturday’s $100,000 first running of The Chosen Vron Stakes for Golden State Series eligibles at Del Mar. The race, formerly known as the Cary Grant Stakes, was renamed in honor of the two-time Cal-bred Horse of the Year, who won the Cary Grant twice.
Man O Rose is by Stanford, out of the Good Journey mare Katherine Rose, was bred by owner B&B Zietz and trained by Jeff Mullins.
Under a confident ride by regular rider Edwin Maldonado, 4-5 favorite Man O Rose went to the front of the pack and had early pressure up the back stretch to the quarter pole from long shot Drop Um (26-1) and Kyle Frey. The pair battled head and head past the half mile pole, where they were met by Clovisconnection (8-1), who put his head in front travelling up the rail into the far turn. Man O Rose quickly reignited mid-way to the far turn and opened up a three-length lead in the stretch to win by 1 ½ lengths. Drop Um maintained second by a half-length over Shea Brennan (2-1), who had to travel three wide down the lane to get into third by a half length over Clovisconnection.
“I just wanted to make it to the top of the stretch, that was the goal; to not press the button (on him) too soon,” said Maldonado. “I was very confident, I mean I knew I had a lot of horse coming down the stretch. He’s comfortable on the outside, he can lay second, he can be off the speed, but he needs to be on the outside. He has been on the lead most of his career. He didn’t switch leads last time coming down the hill (at Santa Anita), so today, my main thing was to try and get him to switch and give him that second gear, which he did.”
The Chosen Vron Stakes was the fourth state-bred stakes win and third in a row for Man O Rose. Trained by Jeff Mullins, in his first start this year off a 10-month layoff, he won the E B Johnston Stakes for the second time in a row going a mile at Los Alamitos. Man O Rose followed that victory with a nose victory in the six and a half furlong California Flag Handicap, down Santa Anita’s hillside turf course on October 10.
“It’s kind of nice to have The Chosen Vron gone. I loved that horse, but he was tough to beat,” said Mullins. “Man O Rose likes to be outside. If he’s inside he gets a little weird. Edwin (Maldonado) knows him well. If there’s a lot of pace or somebody rushing him, he just moves to the middle of the racetrack and brings him home.”
Owned and bred by B & B Zietz stables, Man O Rose, a 5-year-old gelding, is now 17-10-3-0 and has increased his earnings to $497,965.
Man O Rose paid $3.60, $2.60 and $2.10. Trained by Felix Rendon, Drop Um returned $13.40 and $4.20. Shea Brennan, ridden by Armando Ayuso for Phil D’Amato, paid $2.60.
Fractions on the race were 22.32, 44.63, 1:08.82, 1:21.66