Longshot Jimmy Blue Jeans All Heart in Snow Chief
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Jimmy Blue Jeans wins the Snow Chief Stakes at Santa Anita Park
Attentive to the pace throughout, longshot Jimmy Blue Jeans was all heart late as he held off heavily favored None Above the Law by a neck June 19 to win the $152,000 Snow Chief Stakes at Santa Anita Park.
Trained by Golden Gate Fields-based Andy Mathis and ridden by Kent Desormeaux, Jimmy Blue Jeans finished 1 1/8 miles on firm turf in 1:48.69. He races for Perry Bruno, John Gezon, and Robert Jones. Bruno and Gezon bred the 3-year-old son of James Street in California out of the Marino Marini mare Blue Blizzard.
This is the first black-type winner for James Street, a grade 2-winning son of El Prado who stood the 2021 season at Blue Diamond Horseshoe in California for an advertised fee of $10,000.
"This is the biggest race I've won yet," said Bruno, who made the trip with an entourage from his home in Salt Lake City, Utah. "It's like surreal, it's so good, it's like a dream. I'm just a small guy who owns a couple of mares with my partner, John Gezon."
Jimmy Blue Jeans rated second, just off the hip of early pacesetter Found My Ball , as that rival set fractions of :23.06, :47.60, and 1:11.86 before yielding. Jimmy Blue Jeans took command a sixteenth of a mile from home and was all out to preserve the win.
Ridden by Flavien Prat, None Above the Law was mid-pack most of the trip, had to wait for room between horses turning for home, and flew late to just miss. Ferrariano finished a nose back in third.
"I only spoke to the assistant (trainer) and he told me to just try to get him home and he'll probably be forwardly placed and just try to enjoy the ride; that's all he said," said Desormeaux, who was aboard for the first time Saturday. "This ride started two or three days ago. I was a tour guide for the owners. I had to show them where to get licensed and everything, so this is a nice omen, I think is what it is."
Well beaten by None Above the Law two starts back going one mile April 25 on the all-weather track at Golden Gate, Jimmy Blue Jeans came off a first condition allowance win May 16 going a mile on turf at Golden Gate and was sent off at odds of 15-1 in a field of nine California-bred or sired sophomores. He returned $33.40 on a $2 win ticket.
The Snow Chief, a California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association event for eligible California-bred or -sired horses, is part of the lucrative Golden State Series. Jimmy Blue Jeans bagged $90,000 with his first stakes score and increased his earnings to $143,646, with three wins and a third from six starts. He is the only reported foal out of Blue Blizzard, who was last reported bred in 2019.