Listenupshance turned a once-modest claiming résumé into a serious Breeders' Cup Sprint audition on Sunday, wiring the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship and posting back-to-back graded stakes wins for trainer Doug O'Neill at Santa Anita Park. The 4-year-old gelding controlled a reduced three-horse field over six furlongs on a fast track, reaffirming that his Bing Crosby shocker at Del Mar was no fluke and that his speed plays anywhere in Southern California.
The Sprint Championship, run as race 4 on the card, was scratched down from an original cast of five to just three starters, leaving Listenupshance, defending titleholder Imagination, and Bing Crosby runner-up Maximum Bourbon to sort out the divisional pecking order. Breaking from the rail, Emisael Jaramillo hustled Listenupshance straight to the front, and the gelding quickly opened daylight while setting honest fractions that kept his two rivals chasing but never truly threatening. Maximum Bourbon was favored in the wagering at around 6/5, with Listenupshance the 2/1 second choice and Imagination hovering just behind, underscoring how bettors still viewed the Bing Crosby result as something that might be reversed with different circumstances. Instead, those same pace dynamics replayed on the Santa Anita dirt: Listenupshance used his gate speed and rail draw to boss the race from the start and coast home an authoritative winner.
Officially listed at $200,000, the Santa Anita Sprint Championship has become one of the West Coast's most influential preps for the Breeders' Cup Sprint, a status reinforced by recent alumni. In 2024, Straight No Chaser used this race as a springboard to a Sprint victory, and last year Imagination parlayed his Santa Anita win into a runner-up finish in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, cementing the race's reputation as a key crossroads for top sprinters. Track notes in the days leading up to this year's renewal pointed out that a depleted national sprint division made the race even more important, with the expectation that at least one serious Breeders' Cup player would emerge from the field. Between the short lineup and the “Win and You're In” Challenge status historically associated with the event, Listenupshance's decisive performance carries more weight than a typical three-horse Grade 2 — it was a test of whether his Del Mar heroics would travel, and he passed.
The real story, though, is how unlikely it once was that this horse would be anywhere near a race like this. Listenupshance was a mere $10,000 yearling purchase at a Fasig-Tipton sale, a level where most buyers are shopping for solid bread-and-butter horses rather than future Grade 1 winners. He started his career in a $20,000 maiden claimer at Del Mar, winning a six-furlong dirt race in which he was available to be claimed, and spent much of his early trajectory in the lower rungs of the claiming game. Reporting from the Daily Racing Form highlighted how he won two claiming races last year before O'Neill and his partners began consistently targeting stakes company, a jump that would normally be considered aggressive for such a modestly purchased horse. At some point after that initial Del Mar maiden win, he was sold privately to his current ownership group, Run Fast Racing and Great Friends Stable, and they have overseen the transformation from under-the-radar claimer to major sprint player.
The turning point came this summer at Del Mar in the Bing Crosby Stakes, where Listenupshance edged Maximum Bourbon in a tight finish to earn his first graded stakes victory and an automatic berth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. That Bing Crosby score was no soft spot: the purse was $400,000, the field deep, and Listenupshance had to show both speed and grit to fend off Maximum Bourbon late, establishing a rivalry that spilled directly into the Santa Anita Sprint Championship. According to pre-race coverage, he entered Santa Anita with a record of 4 wins, 3 seconds, and 3 thirds from 13 starts and earnings of $438,570; the Sprint Championship pushed those figures to 5 wins and $558,570 from 14 lifetime outings. In the space of barely a year, he has gone from winning a $20,000 maiden claimer to capturing a Grade 1 and now a Grade 2, a climb that racing writers have fairly described as “miraculous.”
The human side of the story is equally important. Doug O'Neill has long been known for getting the most out of hard-knocking horses, and recent coverage noted that a horse like Listenupshance helped fuel another strong summer at Del Mar, where O'Neill was on the verge of yet another training title. Jaramillo, better known for his exploits in Florida, has now partnered with Listenupshance for consecutive graded wins, demonstrating a knack for putting the gelding into the race early and then rationing his speed just enough to see out six furlongs against high-class opposition. Santa Anita's own stable notes emphasized how the connections were comfortable drawing the rail, knowing that Listenupshance's break and early acceleration could turn that inside post into a major tactical edge in a small field. Collectively, the partnership between trainer, rider, and ownership has leaned into the horse's natural gate speed rather than trying to reinvent him, and the results speak for themselves.
From a handicapping standpoint, Listenupshance now looms as one of the more intriguing Breeders' Cup Sprint prospects based in California. With the national sprint division thinned by retirements and injuries, and with this Santa Anita race already serving as a successful launching pad for Straight No Chaser and Imagination in recent years, his profile fits the mold of a horse who can make serious noise on Championship Day. He has shown he can handle Del Mar's deeper surface and Santa Anita's typically tighter, faster dirt, and his ability to maintain strong pace figures while stretching his speed over a full six furlongs is precisely what separates real Sprint contenders from mere pace types. The short field means some bettors will discount the visual impression of this latest win, but when you blend his form lines — the Bing Crosby, the Sprint Championship, and his rapid progression from claiming ranks — Listenupshance looks exactly like the kind of overlooked sprinter who can outrun his odds again when the Breeders' Cup gates open.
