From DRF.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (May 8, 2024) — California trainer Jorge Periban will put a perfect record in Kentucky on the line June 30, when he sends the dazzling 2-year-old debut winner Bodacious from Santa Anita to Churchill Downs for the Bashford Manor Stakes.
Periban is 2 for 2 in Churchill stakes with California-breds – Phantom Boss won the 2019 Bashford Manor, Tom’s Regret won the 2022 Kentucky Juvenile. Both were favorites. Based on an impressive debut, the newest Periban trainee may follow suit.
Bodacious, a California-bred colt by Smokem and bred by Terry Lovingier, was purchased at the California Thoroughbred Breeder Association January Sale for $7,000 from the Lovacres Ranch consignment. He won by more than five lengths May 3 at Santa Anita in the meet’s first juvenile race.
Bodacious zipped 4 1/2 furlongs in a quick 52.01. Before the maiden race, Periban was so confident that he already envisioned travel. “Do you want to go to Kentucky again?” Periban said to jockey Tyler Baze.
Bodacious “showed me a lot of talent in the morning,” Periban said. “I never let him work [fast], always easy. He’s got so much potential.”
Baze, who rode the filly Tom’s Regret in the Kentucky Juvenile, barely encouraged Bodacious late. The colt did it on his own. Now it’s on to Kentucky.