Mambo Meister looks sharp for Big Bubble

MIAMI - After missing much of the winter due to injury, Mambo Meister appears back on top of his game once again. And Mambo Meister's best game should be good enough to win Saturday's $55,000 Big Bubble Stakes at Calder.

The Big Bubble is carded at 1 1/16 miles on the turf and shares top billing on Saturday's 12-race program with the $55,000 Regal Gal for 3-year-old fillies.

Mambo Meister, a multiple stakes winner on dirt at 3, raised his game to another level once switched back to the grass during the tail end of his 2008 campaign. An impressive high-level optional claiming winner here in his 3-year-old finale, Mambo Meister turned in a pair of promising turf efforts at Gulfstream Park in January before being sidelined by inflammation in a hind leg after kicking the screen of his stall.

"The inflammation lasted for quite a while and forced us to miss six weeks of training and some nice stakes opportunities, like the Appleton," trainer Philip Gleaves said.

Mambo Meister finally returned following a three-month hiatus to finish second in Calder's Grade 3 Miami Mile on April 25, and Gleaves is hoping to use that performance as a springboard to an even better effort in the Big Bubble.

"I thought he ran a super race in the Miami Mile, considering he'd been away three months," Gleaves said. "He was pretty fit going into that race, but logically you'd assume he'd move forward condition-wise on Saturday with that one under his belt."

Mambo Meister's competition in the Big Bubble will include Fearless Eagle and Baron Von Tap, who finished third and fourth in the Miami Mile, along with the speedy mare Eclisse, should trainer Marty Wolfson decide to race her against the boys.

Fearless Eagle failed to sustain his rally turning for home, finishing 1 1/4 lengths behind Mambo Meister in the Miami Mile. The hard-knocking son of Invisible Ink had captured 2 of his previous 4 starts, both stakes, including the Tampa Turf Classic on April 4.

Baron Von Tap had registered a pair of easy allowance wins at Tampa prior to his fourth-place finish in the Miami Mile and figures to be on or near the pace Saturday.

Eclisse, who has started just once since the Grade 3 Matchmaker on Aug. 3, also figures to be on or near the pace.