Rezasrolex, the Sport’s Hottest Horse, is Ready to Take the Next Step

[Wandering Eyes]

There's the good news: Rezasrolex (Bucchero) has won nine straight races, a streak that started way back on June 21, 2024. And there's the bad news: the 5-year-old gelding has run through all of his available conditions and is too valuable and too good to be dropped into a claimer. What that means is that trainer Joe Orseno now has no choice but to enter Rezasrolex in a stakes race. He's looking at the Feb. 14 Turf Dash Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

“I know that it will be a step up,” Orseno said. “His numbers and his Ragozin sheet numbers say he's supposed to be competitive against those horses. I have some other really nice turf sprinters that I run in stakes and, on the numbers, he's in the same category. He just ran an 8 on the Ragozin sheets the other day and that's a good number for a turf sprinter.”

Should Rezasrolex run next in the Turf Dash, the Tampa race should be a fascinating test that will pit a horse with an iron will to win against horses that may be a little more talented and more tested at the stakes level.

“He's already handled the turf course at Tampa really well,” Orseno said. “Obviously, it will be a tougher race than the ones he's been running in. We'll go up there and give it our best.”

Rezasrolex began his career at Belterra Park for trainer William Morey. After two starts there, Morey brought him to Gulfstream and dropped him into a Dec. 7, 2023, $16,000 claimer. Orseno thought the horse, who won one of his two starts at Belterra, had some talent and he is a big fan of his sire Bucchero. It didn't hurt that his owner, Robert Cotran, owns a piece of the stallion.

In his Gulfstream debut, he won a two-turn race on the Tapeta surface by a head. Orseno decided to stick with what was working and ran him twice more in distance races. But after his horse finished a lackluster fifth in a Feb. 10, 2024 allowance race for Florida-breds, Orseno knew that it was time for a change. Never again would the horse run beyond 5 1/2 furlongs.

“When we claimed him he went long and then when he went long for me the first time I just thought this isn't his game,” the trainer said. “He didn't move forward. He had needed a race and he should have moved up. He didn't. I told Robert, 'This horse is by Bucchero, and you know Bucchero. He primarily throws horses that are very fast.' It just so happens that this horse is 17 hands and he looks like a distance horse. But I thought that he's a fast horse and he wants to be fast. I decided that I'd play with his head a little bit and crank him up and see if we can get him to be fast. He wants to be a fast horse and I let him be fast. I train him like a Bucchero. I like to think that I've had enough of them that I have their numbers. They'll train and win on any surface and when you find their hole card they're a really good deal.”

Once placed in races where he fit distance-wise, the new and improved Rezasrolex won two straight 5 1/2-furlong races on the Tapeta surface at Gulfstream. Then he was beaten in what would become his only loss in more than 20 months, finishing fourth.

“The time he got beat, Edgard Zayas will tell you that he was sick that day and probably shouldn't have been riding him,” Orseno said. “He just thought, 'This is just a hang-on mount, let me ride him.' But the poor guy was so sick. He just didn't get the best trip.  After that, the rest has been history.”

The streak began with a 5 3/4-length win in a starter allowance race. His next six races were all on Gulfstream's synthetic track. Orseno, who was starting to have trouble finding races for Rezasrolex, switched him to the grass for a first-level allowance race at Gulfstream on Dec. 19 and the results were the same. He won by a neck. In his next and most recent start, he went to Tampa Downs, where he recorded his ninth straight win in a second-level allowance race, also on the grass.

“It's been a lot of fun,” Orseno said. “At first, I didn't think about it much because he's had a few minor issues and we've had to space out some of his races. It's nine in a row, but it's been over almost two years. It's not like he's been running once a month and we've been panicking. It's been pretty cool to think about how hard it is to do something like that. We always knew that we were going to have to step up one day and put him in a tougher race and see what happens. But I've been finding the right spots for him and it's been working out great.”

Orseno knows the streak won't last forever, and may end in his next start.

“Obviously, I want to keep it going,” he said. “I wouldn't say I feel pressure. I just keep picking out good spots for him. It's not pressure, but it sure would be nice to keep this going. Now people are noticing him and he's becoming a little bit of a fan favorite. But I've been in this game a long time and I know that what he is doing is the impossible.”

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