Argentina to Saratoga: Correas takes Didia on road to success

If the weekend goes well for Ignacio Correas IV, he will
have another Grade 1 win on his training profile, and his native land will capture
another major soccer championship.

“Hopefully, I will be back in Lexington and watching the game,”
he said this week at Saratoga. That is where he will run his durable
millionaire mare Didia, the 7-2 morning-line favorite, against five Chad Brown
rivals and four other fillies and mares in the $500,000 Diana Stakes covering 1
1/8 miles of the inner turf course.

Based in Kentucky, Correas comes from a foundational family that has bred and raced horses in Argentina since 1872. That would be the same Argentina that won soccer’s 2022 World Cup and is favored to beat Colombia for the Copa América on Sunday night in Miami.

“I hope we do it. That would be nice to do it,” he said in his interview on Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “We have a good team no matter what, and we are very proud of our team. Not only the way they play but what they bring to the table. (Coach Lionel) Scaloni had done a great job with those guys.”

The same may be said of what Correas, 64, nicknamed Nacho,
has done with Didia, who most recently won the New York Stakes (G1) last month
going 1 3/16 miles on Saratoga’s outer turf course. The 6-year-old Orpen mare
is owned jointly by John Moore and Charles Noell’s Merriebelle Stable and John
Stewart’s Resolute Racing. She was bred by Dr. Ignacio Pavlovsky’s La Manija in
Argentina.

Foaled in October 2018, Didia actually will not turn 6 under
her native Southern Hemisphere standards for another 19 days. That makes her
about six months younger than Northern Hemisphere horses foaled the same year.

Correas, who has trained Didia since her 2021 debut at San
Isidro near Buenos Aires, said her adjustment moving to the U.S. two years ago
involved more than just a seven-month break after her second Group 1 triumph in
Argentina.

“You need to probably make it a little bit more American,”
he said. “Teach them how to kick in 350 yards instead of three-eighths in the stretch.
Tighter turns. They need to learn how to run on the turns. It makes it more
difficult. But once that is done, you treat it like an any other regular horse.”

In other words, the six-month difference between the
breeding calendars on either side of the equator gave Correas a good reason to
be patient in turning Didia from an accomplished horse in South America to
immediate success in the U.S.

“The six months is not something that I’ve come up with.
Nothing like that,” he said. “When you go through all of the South American
horses that have done well in America, look at everybody that you want in
California that have done well here, they all took the time.”

Correas singled out trainers Ron McAnally and Richard
Mandella. McAnally’s list of Grade 1 victors include Bayakoa, Paseana and
Festin. Mandella’s five top-level winners from South America includes
Gentlemen. All four horses were bred in Argentina.

“They all take the time with our horses,” Correas said. “Everybody
that has done well, they give them the time to adapt.”

Didia has been the quintessence of adaptable. In the two
years she has raced in the U.S., she has won on six different racetracks with
two different regular riders and even different styles.

José Ortiz, who took over from Vincent Cheminaud this year,
rode Didia to a front-running victory Jan. 27 in the Pegasus World Cup Filly
and Mare Turf (G2). After they finished third in the Jenny Wiley (G1) at Keeneland, Ortiz
and Didia conceded as many as four lengths early while stalking their way to the
New York win that was worth a 100 Beyer Speed Figure, according to Daily
Racing Form.

“(Her) best race is probably the last one,” Correas said.
Then he amended the answer thinking back to Didia’s U.S. debut in a $75,000
allowance optional-claiming race almost exactly two years ago at Colonial Downs.

“The most accomplished one was probably her first one,” he
said, “because everything was against her, and she delivered anyway. That’s
when we decided to change her style.”

It was only four weeks later when Didia was held up in
eighth place before Cheminaud turned her loose to make up 5 1/2 lengths and win
the Old Nelson Stakes at Colonial. After another seven-month break, she opened 2023 with
another off-the-pace win, this time in the Tom Benson Memorial at Fair Grounds.
She would stalk the pace again next out in winning the Modesty (G3) at
Churchill Downs.

After a close second-place finish in last year’s New York Stakes
at Belmont Park, Didia got three months off before she kept in touch with the early lead en
route to winning the Rodeo Drive (G2) at Santa Anita. That was where an
unfavorable draw and wide trip turned into a 10th-place disappointment in the
Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita and a rider switch in 2024.

Her versatility of style leads to the curiosity about Didia’s
tactical position Saturday. Last year’s Diana winner Whitebeam, part of the
Brown quintet, looks like the speed of the race. But it is not like she is
going to look like a quarter horse running to the first turn.

“Probably the same spot that she was for the New York,”
Correas said about Didia. “A couple of lengths, two or three lengths off the
pace. I mean that will be good enough. That is a decision that (Ortiz) will
probably have to make according to how fast they are going into the lead. That’s
my guess. Once they open the gate, you can give all the instructions that you
want, but it’s up to José.”

If Didia wins Saturday, it at least temporarily will interrupt
Brown’s domination of the Diana. Brown has won the last two runnings of the
race, seven of the last eight and a record eight overall. If there are no
scratches, he will have had 13 of the 21 starters in the Diana since 2022.

“All Chad’s horses are tough when it comes to great ones on
the turf,” Correas said, also casting his gaze to others in the field. “I think
(2022 Canada horse of the year) Moira is another tough filly coming into the
race. There’s a reason they’re all there. … I can only plan for my horse. I
don’t want to speculate what Chad is going to do, who he’s going to send. For
me it’s a waste of time. The only thing I can do is train my horse and hope
that he has a good day.”

Correas has been down this road before. And in this
division. Blue Prize, an Argentina-bred mare, was a two-time winner of the
Spinster (G1) in 2018 and 2019 before she captured the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Distaff
in an upset of Midnight Bisou.

In a revered racing family that has been beyond blue chip
for a century-and-a-half, Correas has made a name for himself.

“I don’t know how I measure,” he said modestly. “In my
family they were mostly all breeders. They were all exceptional in their own
way, so I haven’t done that yet. I’m in a different part. I feel that I have
been lucky to be able to learn from them and enjoy being on the farm and grow
up with horses.”

Trying to weigh himself against forefathers who blazed the
breeding trail more than 100 years ago between Europe and South America is a
subjective proposition at best.

“I don’t think you can compare one to the other one,” Correas
said. “We were all very lucky. We all have done pretty well for ourselves.”