Jeff Mullins was asked if he had a trick or a treat in store for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Oct. 31, the first day of the 2025 extravaganza at Del Mar, in which the veteran trainer will be running the Maximus Mischief ridgling Intrepido. Mullins did not take the bait, but he did offer a tempting thought.
"What happens if he doesn't get stopped on both turns this time?" Mullins said, and left it there, driving the memory back to the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) Oct. 4 at Santa Anita Park.
Facing four from the Bob Baffert barn and stakes company for the first time, Intrepido turned what could have been a rocky horror picture show into an 8-1 upset with a last-second burst to defeat Best Pal Stakes (G3) winner Desert Gate by three-quarters of a length.
Now, with a divisional championship on the line, Intrepido and Hector Berrios will need to fashion a smoother trip from post 1 Friday to handle a field that includes the intimidating eastern invader Ted Noffey and the $3 million Brant, who has not run since winning the Del Mar Futurity (G1) two months ago.
"Maybe he's already had his bad luck drawing the one hole," said Mullins, who is gunning for his first Breeders' Cup score. "I won't be telling the jock anything. He knows the horse, so he'll have to break and figure it out from there."
Befitting the Halloween running of the Juvenile, Intrepido is basically a golden lab dressed up in a horse costume. Around the barn he's known as a kissing bandit, going for a smooch at anyone passing too close to his stall, often with the white blaze crawling over his muzzle stained brown from molasses feed.
"He's such a sweet boy, a real gentle giant," said owner Michele Arthur, who races as Dutch Girl Holdings, in partnership with the Irving Ventures of Ruben Islas. "And we've done some research. The inside post is not that bad going two turns at Del Mar. Hopefully, we can let the outside horses go on and do their thing, then let the battling begin."
Arthur is a native San Diegan who lays a legitimate claim to her stable name. She is a first-generation daughter of a Dutch-Indonesian parents who met at a San Diego Dutch Club. Her father, who served in the Dutch navy, was invited to work with his United States counterparts in the local shipyards, then later became a civil servant. The family name is Veerman.
"Which means 'ferryman,'" Arthur said. "And 'intrepido' suits our horse, because he had to be brave to overcome the trouble in his last race."
Intrepido goes from a six-horse field in the American Pharoah to seven in the Juvenile, exactly half the capacity designed for the race. After eight were originally entered, the scratch of Del Mar Futurity third-place finisher Civil Liberty has made for the smallest Juvenile field in its 42 offerings. What gives?
"There are a couple of factors," said Dora Delgado, Breeders' Cup executive vice president and chief racing officer. "We know the foal crops have decreased, which will have an impact across the board. And I think the trend has been that some owners might be a little reluctant to ship their 2-year-olds to California from the east as much these days, especially when they've been facing a dominant horse like Ted Noffey."
There has also evolved a lack of depth in the West Coast 2-year-old division from year to year in the face of the Baffert juggernaut issuing forth expensive, well-bred, and very fast young runners in wave after wave. Baffert's 2-year-olds pretty much ran the table at the Del Mar summer meet this season and appeared poised to do the same during the Santa Anita autumn meet. Then Intrepido came along to flop the script.
Trainer Mike Pender found Intrepido for Arthur and Islas at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training in April. He cost $385,000. Mullins claims no part in the purchase.
"To do it right, those 2-year-old sales are a tremendous amount of work," said Mullins, 62, who hails from the town of Murray in Utah's Salt Lake Valley. "They've got Mike and Steve Young back there, which lets me stay home and take care of business.
"When Intrepido got to us you could tell he had a lot of quality," Mullins went on. As he spoke, Intrepido was schooling in the Del Mar saddling paddock, early on Thursday afternoon. With more than a dozen horses circling around the ring, the ridgling studied them with a look of pure boredom.
"That's him," Mullins said. "Nothing bothers him. When he sprinted in his first race I told them he probably wouldn't win, because I thought he was meant to go longer. He broke slow but came running. Julien Leparoux rode him that day and told me the way he pulled up, distance wasn't going to be any problem."
Intrepido proved that in spades to break his maiden going a mile at Del Mar Aug. 23 under Berrios, who blew his stick late when it hardly mattered. The margin was 3 1/4 lengths. Then came the American Pharoah.
Mullins made a Southern California splash in the first part of the century with three straight winners of the Santa Anita Derby (G1). Since then he has scored major wins with the likes of I Want Revenge, Battle of Hastings, Choctaw Nation, Itsinthepost, and more recently Queen Maxima, who set a course record at Churchill Downs for Arthur and Islas.
"Queen Maxima was my first horse for them and Intrepido is the second," Mullins said. "We know it doesn't always go this way, but I'm glad they're enjoying the ride."
In 11 previous Breeders' Cup tries, Mullins has had a second, a third, and last year a fifth with Sugar Fish behind Thorpedo Anna in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1). A victory in the Juvenile would feel like a long way from the world of 1984, when the race was first run at Hollywood Park and Mullins was three years out of high school.
"There's no way I would have watched it," he said. "I was probably riding one of my dad's broodmares down the Jordan River. I had a new Belmont saddle I wanted to try out."
He winced.
"Man, was I sore."
