LEXINGTON, Ky. — Trainer Valorie Lund recognized Bodenheimer as untapped talent the first time she saw him. On Oct. 4, the Washington-bred confirmed her confidence by winning the Indian Summer (L) Presented by Keeneland Select, a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1) here Nov. 6 while becoming her first Keeneland winner.
“Overall, he was a really good individual,” Lund said of that first encounter. “He favors the (broodmare sire) A.P. Indy line when I looked at his head, neck and shoulders. He was stout as a yearling but sleeker now as a racehorse.”
Another attraction for Lund was the colt’s Grade 2-winning sire, Atta Boy Roy, a Washington-bred who Lund had trained and exercised throughout his career and raced in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) at Churchill Downs. Bodenheimer’s dam is stakes winner and stakes producer Beautiful Daniele, an $800,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale graduate whose pedigree page includes champion Countess Diana.
Lund had the final bid on the yearling Bodenheimer for $27,000 at a Thoroughbred auction in Washington. She said he soon stood out from the crowd in his early training.
“You can pick out the good ones by their action,” she said. “He was a beautiful mover and when the 2-year-olds started doing their early breezes, he showed he was really fast. We thought so highly of him that we purchased his dam privately from Kentucky before he made his first start.”
Owned by Lund’s mother, Marylou Holden, and sister, Kristin Boice, Bodenheimer is named for Boice’s husband, Entz Bodenheimer Boice. Both are known as “Bo.”
On July 29, the equine Bo sailed to an 11¼-length victory on turf at Canterbury Park in his career debut. He then captured the Aug. 22 Prairie Gold Juvenile Stakes on dirt at Prairie Meadows. He checked in fifth in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint on Sept. 12 in his third career start.
Formerly based at Turf Paradise in Arizona each winter and racing in the summer at such tracks as Canterbury, Lund has relocated to Kentucky. She now trains Bodenheimer at Ashwood Training Center, 10 miles northeast of Lexington. She and the colt will commute to Keeneland for his turf workouts in advance of the Breeders’ Cup.
Press Release
Photo: Bodenheimer wins the Indian Summer Stakes. Credit: Keeneland/Coady
