Du Jour shot through a big hole along the rail at the top of the stretch and ran on to win the Frank E. Kilroe Mile (G1T) March 3 at Santa Anita by 2 lengths as trainer Bob Baffert celebrated a bang-up day at the races.
Du Jour is owned by the trainer’s wife in partnership with friend Debbie Lanni. Baffert’s barn is almost exclusively trained and raced on dirt although he did win the Kilroe Mile in 2000 with Commitisize. “He’s going to have a new reputation now,” Lanni said after Du Jour’s score.
Jockey Flavien Prat got Du Jour away cleanly and set up shop behind the leading quintet as the field raced down the backstretch in the Kilroe Mile. He took closer order approaching the turn, to make a choice turning into the stretch.
Du Jour shot to prominence when he won the American Turf (G2T) on Derby Day at Churchill Downs in 2021. He came up short in four subsequent starts that year and did not race in 2022. He returned refreshed and renewed in 2023, finishing second in his first two starts, then winning the Wickerr Stakes and the Del Mar Mile (G2T) in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) last November. He took three tries to find the winner’s circle before breaking through at Santa Anita in February of 2021, then won an allowance race there before pulling off the mild upset win in the American Turf.