Carry Back: Too Much Bling by two

MIAMI - Too Much Bling asserted his class superiority over seven other 3-year-olds, cruising to a two-length triumph in the $300,000 . Mach Ride finished a game second, three lengths in front of Blazing Rate.

Too Much Bling, a son of Rubiano, was already a two-time graded stakes winner coming into the Grade 3 Carry Back. Allowed to settle by Prado off an early pace set by Mach Ride and contested by Laptop Computer, Too Much Bling moved readily to challenge the leaders while kept out in the better going well off the rail entering the stretch. He

gradually edged clear while kept to pressure through the final furlong of the six-furlong dash.

Too Much Bling, whose three-race win streak ended due to an unlucky trip in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Breeders' Cup Handicap in his previous start, paid $3 after covering the distance in 1:10.48.

"You get them ready and you ship, and sometimes it works and

sometimes it doesn't," trainer Bob Baffert said by phone from California after the race. "He's a neat, very professional and extremely talented horse. He's a light horse, and I kind of threw him in with the wolves last year. I give Garrett Gomez a lot of credit for teaching him to relax, and I think he'll only get better as he gets older."

Baffert said he will bring Too Much Bling back to California and will race him lightly between now and the Breeders' Cup.

"I don't want to run him too many times," Baffert said. "I want a fresh horse for the Breeders' Cup Sprint."