Wanderin Boy got down to business right away in his first start since last November for trainer Nick Zito. The 6-year-old son of Seeking the Gold took charge soon after the start in the May 4 Alysheba Stakes (gr. III) at Churchill Downs and won by 41/4 lengths under top weight of 124 pounds.

The fact Wanderin Boy is still racing is a testament to the care shown by his breeder/owner Arthur B. Hancock III when Wanderin Boy was growing up at Hancock’s Stone Farm near Paris, Ky.

“When he was a foal, he had a fractured sesamoid,” he said. “We kept him in a small pen with his mother for six weeks and moved the pen around so they could have grass. We turned him out in a paddock for about a month. We broke him as a yearling, and then as a 2-year-old he fractured his cannon bone.”

More problems followed, but Wanderin Boy finally made it to the races at 3. He started his career winning three of four starts, including the Mineshaft Handicap (gr. III) at Fair Grounds, before fracturing his other cannon bone in the New Orleans Handicap (gr. II) in March 2005. He spent six more months back at the farm and didn’t race again until the following January.

Wanderin Boy enjoyed his best season last year. He won the Brooklyn Breeders’ Cup Handicap (gr. II) and Ben Ali Stakes (gr. III). Perhaps even more impressive is that he ran second to Invasor in the Pimlico Special Handicap (gr. I) and second to Bernardini in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I).

Vid Kid, dam of Wanderin Boy, came up barren from the cover of Seeking the Gold for 2007. She is booked to Street Cry, sire of Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) winner Street Sense.

Hancock possesses an enviable record in the Run for the Roses. He bred and/or raced in partnership Kentucky Derby winners Gato Del Sol (in 1982), Sunday Silence (1989), and Fusaichi Pegasus (2000).

Hancock is thinking of running Wanderin Boy in the June 16 Stephen Foster Handicap (gr. I) at Churchill, but will leave the final decision to Zito. “I will leave that to the general,” he said. “I learned a long time ago that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I’ll race ‘em and breed ‘em and breed ‘em and race ‘em, but I leave that to Nick.”

Wanderin Boy, whose name comes from the country song “Out In The Cold World,” is one of 79 stakes winners sired by Seeking the Gold. The stallion also is represented this year by Sweet Fervor (gr. II), Society Hostess (gr. IIIT), and Maizelle. Seeking the Gold stands for $125,000 at the Hancock family’s Claiborne Farm near Paris.—D.S.