Lovesick Blues getting ready for return to training

Lovesick Blues, the winner of the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar last July, is nearing the end of six-week break at a central California farm and could return to racing this fall.

Trainer Librado Barocio, who owns the 8-year-old through his family’s Mia Familia Racing Stable, said a race goal with Lovesick Blues is the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Sept. 27. The winner of that race receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31.

Lovesick Blues, the 2025 California-bred Horse of the Year, has not raced since he finished eighth of 12 in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai on March 28.

Lovesick Blues worked a half-mile at Santa Anita on May 3 before he was given a rest. Prior to the start in Dubai, Lovesick Blues finished fifth of 13 in the Group 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia. The races in the Middle East had $2 million purses.

Barocio considered Lovesick Blues for the Thor’s Echo Stakes for California-breds at Santa Anita on May 23 until he assessed the gelding’s condition earlier in the month.

“The trip took a little out of him,” Barocio said. “I saw he was a little thin.”

Lovesick Blues has won 9 of 45 starts and earned $910,000. He was sixth in the BC Sprint at Santa Anita last November, and a return to that race is a goal, Barocio said.

“I want to give him a chance,” he said.

If Lovesick Blues does not regain his top-level form, there is a chance he could be retired.

“It depends on whether he runs good,” Barocio said. “We’ll see what happens.”