The Chosen Vron was a remarkable presence on the Southern California circuit from 2020-24, winning 19 of 25 starts, 18 stakes, five graded stakes, back-to-back editions of the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1), and banking more than $1.7 million.
With him now retired, it was only fitting the race named in his honor may have unveiled the next California-bred star: Man O Rose.
Showing early foot out of the gate at Del Mar Nov. 8 beneath jockey Edwin Maldonado, the 5-year-old Stanford gelding accepted early challenges to his supremacy in the $100,000 The Chosen Vron Stakes before dispatching his rivals entering the stretch, kicking away to a 1 1/2-length triumph while completing 7 furlongs in 1:21.66.
The victory improved his 2025 record to a perfect 3-for-3, all in stakes company, under the leadership of trainer Jeff Mullins. Overall, it was his fourth stakes triumph and 10th victory from 17 starts while earning $497,965.
"He likes to win," said his owner/breeder Bruce Zietz. "It's unbelievable that a horse wins more than half his races."
Man O Rose has kept good company so far in his career with the B and B Zietz Stables silks, the racing stable named after Zietz and his late wife, Beverly. In June 2024, he won a 6-furlong allowance race on turf against multiple graded stakes winner Motorious by 2 lengths, who five months later would finish second in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T). One start prior to that, traveling the same distance on dirt, he defeated future grade 1 winner Lovesick Blues by 2 lengths. He would again defeat Lovesick Blues this October in the California Flag Handicap by a nose.
However, he has yet to test graded waters, Mullins and Zietz opting instead to let him gradually work his way up the ladder. Zietz referenced the great Charlie Whittingham saying, 'Take your conditions,' as a reason for leaving him in allowance company for several starts before attempting stakes.
"To a certain degree, you can anticipate winning at a higher percentage depending on who you're running against," Zietz said. "We've tried to keep him at distances or against competition that he'd have the best chance. You keep your horse sounder when you run against lesser competition."
Soundness is a key factor with what Zietz targets when looking to breed a runner, and he has carefully crafted Man O Rose's line over several generations to give him a consistent, durable foundation. Man O Rose's dam, Kathleen Rose, has a full brother, Getoffmyback, who made 63 starts with 17 wins and more than $450,000 in earnings.
"When you're racing a horse and your horse goes unsound, you're in trouble," Zietz said.
A retired physician who said he was the first hematologist oncologist in the San Fernando Valley, the 86-year-old Zietz has based his breeding selections on his own theories and readings, calling himself the "antithesis of the modern day breeder." He experienced early success when he claimed the mare Friendly Patricia in the late 1970s and bred her to Figanero, producing Patrick McFig.
After being sold by Zietz's Sens du Cheval Farm, Patrick McFig would go on to win three stakes in a career that totaled eight victories from 47 starts for earnings of $244,772. However, it turned out that Zietz may have been struck by beginner's luck.
"I thought it was easy after that, so I started breeding along the same lines," Zietz said. "Of course, it didn't work because I didn't have enough prepotent blood in my pedigrees."
Zietz's outlook on breeding would then change following the death of Secretariat in 1989 as he read the works of author Marianna Haun, who sought to discover what led to the 1973 Triple Crown winner's increased heart size. The thesis was that the "X Factor" for the larger heart was linked to the X chromosome, bringing extra importance to the female lines.
"Genetically, it would be prepotent based on at least the DNA transmission," Zietz said. "In a way, it changed me from looking at the stallion. Most stallions don't penetrate many generations, maybe one generation, but it's hard to find two. But the ones that do, if you really examine them, have a very, very strong female component."
That belief led Zietz to the mare Cantina, Man O Rose's third dam, after a conversation he had with her trainer and former Charlie Whittingham assistant, Rodney Rash. Rash told him the filly could really run, and he bought the mare in foal to Evansville Slew for $5,500 at the 2001 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale from the Walmac International consignment.
Cantina was a daughter of Seattle Dancer, the half brother of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, who sold for a world-record yearling price of $13.1 million. Through his dam My Charmer, Seattle Dancer's female line stretches back to La Troienne and War Admiral.
Haun's works identified four stallions as carriers of the big heart: Princequillo, War Admiral, Blue Larkspur, and Mahmoud. All but Mahmoud are represented in My Charmer's line, and Princequillo and Mahmoud are present in Cantina's female line.
Cantina produced Cantina's Rose, a daughter of Decarchy, who carries War Admiral, Blue Larkspur, and Mahmoud in his pedigree. Cantina's Rose then produced Kathleen Rose, whose sire Good Journey carries the blood of War Admiral, Mahmoud, and Princequillo.
"The females, I couldn't prove they carried the Big X, but I felt if they were of champion racing quality or producing quality, I would consider them to have a big heart," Zietz said. "If you get (Princequillo, War Admiral, Blue Larkspur, and Mahmoud) in the female family and can see them running through the dams of your mare, I think you have a good shot of getting a big heart."
Zietz also took some pages out of the book of legendary breeder Federico Tesio when it came to line breeding. Zietz took this approach to look for the large heart gene on both X chromosomes.
Cantina's pedigree holds this example of line breeding in Round Table. My Charmer is the daughter of Round Table's son, Poker. Round Table's daughter, Drumtop, is the dam of Topsider—sire of Cantina's dam, Chick Or Two—and Round Table's full sister, Monarchy, is the dam of Envoy, sire of Chick Or Two's dam.
"So in the same line, I had Round Table's best daughter, sister, and son," Zietz said. "I've never seen that in a pedigree."
The accomplishments throughout the pedigree could fill a novel, but ultimately the name Man O Rose comes from the female line tracing back to War Kilt, a daughter of the great Man o' War.
Stanford served as a suitable local stallion to this line, originally standing at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds at the time of Man O Rose's breeding before standing the last two years at Harris Farms.
"I think (Man O Rose) is really well bred because Stanford is really well bred," Zietz said. "He just hasn't been a great sire, but he has the gene pool in him if you can extract it."
Zietz said he prefers not mating with top commercial stallions in Kentucky as he is more focused on a durable race horse than bringing top dollar at the sales. With many top stallions breeding over 200 mares, Zietz said you need the one you breed to be near-perfect to compete in the sales ring or on the racetrack.
"My experience is that breeding to the so-called top stallions has a huge defect in the statistics," Zietz said. "If you're breeding to a stallion who is breeding more than 200 mares, it's a little harder to get in foal. These horses that are the real thing, the ones that are producing, are very expensive.
"If you have a stallion that makes runners, sooner or later they're going to hit (with a stakes horse)."
Challenging that way of thinking is not new to Zietz, who said he always questioned the dogma in medicine. After retiring from his practice, he spent five years reviewing oncology, chemotherapy, and hematology for Aetna, Cigna, and Humana.
"I always figure things out on my own basis," he said. "I would start reviewing each case from scratch. I would never take their diagnosis and what they wanted. I would work the case out myself, make a diagnosis, and then see what fit in terms of the best therapy."
As far as what fits best for Man O Rose regarding future racing engagements is yet to be seen. One thing for sure is he has the pedigree and soundness to keep him performing at the stakes level for many years to come.
"I've raced enough horses to know the average horse does not win like this," Zietz said. "I'm trying to take it all in."
