Big Macher, Gold Rush Dancer may have date in Thor's Echo

ARCADIA, Calif. – The California-bred stakes winners Big Macher and Gold Rush Dancer are likely to return from layoffs and meet for the first time in the $100,000 Thor’s Echo Handicap for statebred sprinters at Santa Anita on June 11.

Big Macher, the former maiden claimer who won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar in 2014, has not raced since finishing seventh in the Cary Grant Stakes at Del Mar in November 2015. A five-time stakes winner, Big Macher was sidelined with a ligament issue, trainer Richard Baltas said earlier this year.

Big Macher worked a half-mile in 47.20 seconds on Sunday.

A 7-year-old gelding, Big Macher has won 7 of 19 starts and earned $684,288 for Tom Mansor and Tachycardia Stables.

Gold Rush Dancer won three stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds last year, notably the Snow Chief Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita in May and the Real Good Deal Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar in July.

Trained by Vann Belvoir for owner and breeder John Parker, Gold Rush Dancer has not raced since finishing fourth in the Cary Grant Stakes last November, his eighth start of 2016.

“He ran hard and had a tough campaign,” Belvoir said. “We gave him a chance for R & R. It was mental, too.”

Belvoir said the Thor’s Echo is a prep for more lucrative, and sentimental, races this summer. Belvoir would like to run Gold Rush Dancer in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs on Aug. 13.

“I won it as a jockey,” Belvoir said. “It would be fun to give it a chance.”

Belvoir, 43, won the 1994 Longacres Mile on Want a Winner when the race was run at Yakima Meadows following the closing of Longacres in 1992 and prior to the opening of Emerald Downs in 1996.