IMPRIMIS PUTS ORSENO BACK IN THE Back-to-back wins at the 2000 Breeders= Cup--held then as just a one-day, blockbuster eight-race program--put an exclamation SPOTLIGHT point on a career year for the now by Steve Sherack 65-year-old. You have to have the right AThat year, we won two horses, manage them properly Breeders= Cups, the Preakness, and and get them to the big races a bunch of Grade Ones, and I just when they are at their best. thought it was gonna happen Those are the sentiments of every year,@ said Orseno, a former Classic-winning trainer Joe private trainer for Stronach Stables Orseno, who will saddle between 1998 and 2002. Saturday=s GI Breeders= Cup AIt=s not like I forgot how to train Turf Sprint morning-line co- in the last 20 years,@ he added with second choice Imprimis a laugh. AYou have to have the (Broken Vow). horses.@ It=s been some time, Orseno certainly had the horses 20 years to be exact, but this on that aforementioned isn=t Orseno=s first trip to the Joe Orseno | Ryan Thompson Championship Saturday at Breeders= Cup with a live Churchill Downs. runner. Far from it. Cont. p2 BC SATURDAY SPECIAL EDITION $ PAGE 2 OF 22 $ THETDN.COM THURSDAY $ NOV. 5, 2019 Perfect Sting and Macho Uno reeled off dramatic wins in consecutive fashion beneath Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey, providing Orseno with a rolling double in the GI Breeders= Cup Filly & Mare Turf and GI Breeders= Cup Juvenile, respectively. He also tightened the girth on Red Bullet to an upset victory over GI Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus earlier that spring in the second leg of the Triple Crown. AThat was a great day, obviously, for myself, the owners and my whole team, and a few of those guys are still with me,@ Orseno reflected of the 2000 Breeders= Cup. AI thought I should=ve won one the year before and was very disappointed that Perfect Sting had a rough trip. I was like, >Geez, is this really ever going to happen for me?= Then when Macho Uno (left) & Perfect Sting put them back-to-back for trainer Joe Orseno at the 2000 Breeders= Cup | Horsephotos she won, it was just like a big weight was lifted. We won a Breeders= Cup! Wow! Then to come back and win the very next one. What can you say? It was just a great day. Two very good horses. And you know what? We had >em ready to run that particular day. That=s what it=s about.@ Orseno looks like he has another one ready to run Saturday. A punchless sixth in last year=s Breeders= Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita--Orseno=s first starter at the Championships since 2002--Imprimis underwent a pair of throat surgeries to repair a breathing issue this off season. AGene Recio had him on the farm in Ocala and started to hear a little noise once he was back in training,@ Orseno said. AWe went ahead and scoped him and saw that the first surgery was starting to fail a little bit. We walked him across the street to Equine Performance Center and did another surgery in February. This one worked and he hasn=t looked back since. It 100% has helped him.@ Cont. p3 GOOD LUCK to SITTIN ON GO AND OUTADORE and all their connections Photograph by Coady Photography Photograph by Coady Photography SITTIN ON GO OUTADORE Congratulations to breeders Greg and Deann Baer G1 TVG BREEDERS’ CUP G1 BREEDERS’ CUP JUVENILE JUVENILE TURF presented by presented by THOROUGHBRED COOLMORE AFTERCARE ALLIANCE AMERICA way Graduates BC SATURDAY SPECIAL EDITION $ PAGE 3 OF 22 $ THETDN.COM THURSDAY $ NOV. 5, 2019 Imprimis crossed the wire a dominant winner in his AWhen he=s right, he brings his >A= game,@ Orseno said. AI=m comebacker for his 6-year-old debut, but had his number going in there knowing that my horse is as good as I can have controversially taken down to third for causing interference in him and as good as he could be. He=s ready.@ the stretch in Saratoga=s GIII Troy S. Aug. 8. A native of Philadelphia, Orseno grew up not far from the now ATake the human aspect out of it as far as taking him down, defunct Garden State Racetrack and went to the races with his the horse ran his race and he couldn=t have run any better off a father as a kid. He paved his own way into the business, taking 10-month layoff,@ Orseno said. AI sent him there to Saratoga and out his trainer=s license in 1977. AWhen I was in high school, I he ran a great race, and I was very proud of that.@ played sports. I didn=t grow up around the horses,@ Orseno said. The gelding got his chance at redemption and backed up that Based year-round at Gulfstream Park with 40 stalls, Orseno is strong performance with a visually impressive, come-from- behind score in the >Win and You=re In= GIII Runhappy Turf Sprint S. over the soft going at Kentucky Downs last time Sept. 12. Joe Orseno with 2000 Preakness winner Red Bullet | Horsephotos closing in on 2,000 victories and $50 million in career earnings. Imprimis | Coady Since re-opening his stable to the public in 2002, his runners have grossed seven figures in earnings in every season bar He=s earned Beyer Speed Figures of 101 and 102 in his two three. Other standouts campaigned by Orseno include GISWs starts this year. Irad Ortiz, Jr, a perfect three-for-three in the Golden Missile, also a longshot third in the 1999 GI Breeders= irons aboard Imprimis, is booked again to ride this weekend. Cup Classic, Collect the Cash, Roaring Twenties and Tap to Imprimis=s six-race campaign in 2019, led by a course-and- Music. distance tally in Keeneland=s GII Shakertown S., included a trip to AI=ve always been a hands-on trainer,@ Orseno concluded. AThe Royal Ascot, where he finished sixth in the G1 King=s Stand S. game=s changed a lot since I first came in. [Late trainer] Mickey AThis year we chose to do a different path. He didn=t run as Crock took me from the ground up and taught me the right way. much and he=s very fresh,@ Orseno said. AHe was getting little to The horsemen way. I always say, >There=s horse trainers and no air [last year], and he still tried every single time.@ there=s horsemen.= I always considered myself a horseman.@ Produced by the Put It Back mare Shoppers Return, Imprimis was purchased privately by Mike Hall and Sam Ross's Breeze Easy LLC after beginning his career with a pair of wins for breeder Craig Wheeler and trainer Tim Hills at the age of four. BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC The Florida-bred=s resume also includes wins in the 2018 Jim Most Wins by a Jockey McKay Turf Sprint S. at Pimlico and the Wolf Hill S. at Jerry Bailey-5: Arcangues, Black Tie Affair (Ire), Cigar, Concern, Saint Liam Monmouth, and the 2019 Silks Run S. at Gulfstream. Hailing Chris McCarron-5: Alphabet Soup, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Tiznow (2x) from the family of GISWs Miss Shop (Deputy Minister) and Pat Day-4: Awesome Again, Cat Thief, Unbridled, Wild Again Power Broker (Pulpit), he sports a record of 15-8-0-2 and career Mike Smith-4: Arrogate, Drosselmeyer, Skip Away, Zenyatta earnings of $759,948. BC SATURDAY SPECIAL EDITION $ PAGE 4 OF 22 $ THETDN.COM THURSDAY $ NOV. 5, 2019 LONGINES BREEDERS= CUP CLASSIC With an Eclipse Award winner, GI Kentucky Derby hero and by two lengths in the GI Whitney S. at Saratoga Aug. 1 and was victor of three straight Grade I races this term in his arsenal, Hall very impressive when taking the GI Awesome Again S. by of Famer Bob Baffert looked primed to take home his fourth 4 1/2 lengths Sept. 26, earning that 108 Beyer top. GI Breeders= Cup Classic trophy. Second in the Awesome Again >TDN Rising Star= Improbable (City was Improbable=s champion Zip) owns the highest last-out Beyer stablemate Maximum Security Speed Figure of the trio and the (New Year=s Day). Topping the entire Classic field. An undefeated sophomore division last term, Grade I winner at two, the flashy despite his DQ from a Kentucky chestnut failed to show the same Derby win, Maximum Security form as a sophomore, with his lone picked up right where he left off victory of 2019 coming in the Shared this season, capturing the Belief S. However, the WinStar Farm inaugural $20-million Saudi Cup and China Horse Club runner has Feb. 29. Given a brief freshening been a force to be reckoned with and transferred to Baffert after his this season with three top-level former trainer Jason Servis was scores since his close second to served with a federal indictment, subsequent GII Stephen Foster S. Improbable | Sarah Andrew the bay was given a clean bill of romper Tom=s d=Etat (Smart Strike) health and captured his first start in the Oaklawn Mile in his seasonal bow Apr. 11. Romping in the for his new conditioner in the GII San Diego H. at Del Mar July 10-furlong GI Hollywood Gold Cup S. June 6, Improbable bested 25. He earned a 107 Beyer for his wire-to-wire score in the GI next-out GII Alysheba S.