Big Macher will train up to Breeders' Cup Sprint
DEL MAR, Calif. – The calling card for Big Macher during his rise from a maiden claimer to a Grade 1 stakes winner has been his will to win, but that spirit was absent last Sunday in the Pat O’Brien Stakes, a performance trainer Richard Baltas believes was due to coming back too quickly for a second race following a lengthy layoff.
Big Macher won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby over six furlongs early in the meet but finished sixth of seven in the seven-furlong Pat O’Brien.
“The horse is fine. Sound, scoped clean. Pull a blood, and that looks okay,” Baltas said. “The only thing I can think of is that he hadn’t run in 3 1/2 months before the Bing Crosby, and then he came back in four weeks. Usually, he runs every six weeks.”
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Because of the Pat O’Brien result, Baltas said Big Macher would not have a start between now and the Breeders’ Cup. He wants to train Big Macher straight into the six-furlong BC Sprint on Nov. 1.
Rosario in town Sunday
Joel Rosario, the leading rider at Del Mar three straight years (2009-11) but now a mainstay on the East Coast, is scheduled to be here Sunday to ride Flamboyant in the Grade 2, $300,000 Del Mar Derby.
Enterprising is the focal point of the Del Mar Derby. He won the Oceanside Stakes and La Jolla Handicap earlier in the meet and will be going for a sweep of the meet’s grass stakes for 3-year-olds in the Del Mar Derby.