Big Sweep beats up on the boys in Echo Eddie Stakes

It wasn’t quite how trainer Mark Glatt and jockey Flavien Prat drew it up on paper, but the result is what mattered most, so even though the filly Big Sweep had to rally from off the pace rather than sprint to the lead, she still got home first on Saturday at Santa Anita in the $151,500 Echo Eddie, beating seven males in the stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds.

Big Sweep ($4.20) was favored off a debut win on March 14 in which she showed high speed from the rail when leading from start to finish going six furlongs. In the Echo Eddie, also at six furlongs, she was sixth a quarter-mile into the race after starting from post 7, steadily advanced outside horses on the far turn, then got past 13-1 shot Rookie Mistake in the closing yards to win by a head. She also appeared to overcome being smacked on the nose inadvertently nearing the finish by the whip of jockey Mario Gutierrez, who was on Rookie Mistake.

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Club Aspen ran on for third, 2 1/2 lengths behind Rookie Mistake, then came, in order, Bettor Trip Nick, Phantom Boss, Audace, Project Leader, and Stir the Pot, who led through a torrid 21.56-second opening quarter before yielding to Bettor Trip Nick, who passed the half in 45.21 seconds. Big Sweep completed six furlongs on the fast main track in 1:10.23.

“It looked like she broke fine enough, but they just darted away from her,” Glatt said in a telephone interview following the race. “Fortunately Flavien sat chilly. That’s the beauty of an outside post. She’s a nice filly. She overcame adversity, or changes from her first race.”

Glatt said he was glad he had Prat aboard, trusting the rider to make the necessary adjustments. Owing to the enhanced health and safety protocols at Santa Anita, trainers cannot accompany horses to the walking ring to speak with riders before the race, nor debrief them afterward when horses are unsaddled.

“You’ve got to call them the morning of the race,” Glatt said. “We’re completely isolated from the riders before and after the race.”

Big Sweep, a daughter of the Dynaformer stallion Mr. Big out of a City Zip mare, was purchased as a yearling for $40,000. She is owned by the Cohen family’s entities Red Baron’s Barn LLC and Rancho Temescal LLC.

Glatt said he had made no plans beyond the Echo Eddie – “We zeroed in on this race,” he said – but that down the line he’d think about trying turf with Big Sweep, and certainly would look for her to go two turns

“She has a pedigree that might pick her up a level or two on grass, and given how she relaxed today, I don’t think she’ll have any problems going two turns,” Glatt said.