Masochistic finally making news for his racing

ARCADIA, Calif. – Masochistic’s reputation has evolved since his career began in the spring of 2014.

Initially, he was at the center of a medication scandal when he tested for an overage of a common tranquilizer after his debut, a fifth-place finish at Santa Anita in March last year. Through 2014, he was considered a morning rogue, prone to running off during exercise. Still, he won three of his first five starts.

This year, things have changed dramatically. Masochistic, 5, has a new trainer in Ron Ellis and a new co-owner in Samantha Siegel. His new identity: a two-time stakes winner and a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31.

Masochistic can earn a fees-paid berth in the BC Sprint with a win in Saturday’s $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, a Grade 1 race at six furlongs. He will be favored in the Santa Anita Sprint, part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In series.

A year ago, there were no such ambitious plans. Masochistic, trained at the time by A.C. Avila, finished a well-beaten second in his stakes debut, the $200,000 Los Alamitos Mile, in September 2014. Weeks later, a quarter crack ended an eventful season for Masochistic.

Masochistic’s 2014 season began with his fifth-place debut in a California-bred maiden race. Following that race, Masochistic was ordered tested by Santa Anita stewards, who expressed concern over jockey Omar Berrio’s ride. The stewards questioned whether Berrio “prevented his horse from giving his best race.”

Avila later defended Berrio’s ride, saying he gave instructions to Berrio to preserve his mount in the stretch before asking for an effort. Berrio, who has not ridden since April 2014, has never been sanctioned for the ride.

The tranquilizer overage was announced and the purse of Masochistic’s debut race was redistributed in late April 2014, days before Masochistic won a maiden race as the 2-1 favorite at Churchill Downs on the undercard of the Kentucky Derby. Back in California that summer, Masochistic won two more races while the California Horse Racing Board conducted an investigation into the horse’s first race.

The judicial process moved slowly through the racing board’s system. One horse’s owner was so frustrated by the glacial pace of the case that he scratched his horse in protest instead of running in an optional claimer won by Masochistic at Del Mar in August 2014.

Finally, the racing board announced Feb. 27 that Avila was suspended for 60 days and fined $10,000. The next day, Masochistic won his 2015 debut in an optional claimer, which turned out to be his last race for Avila.

Avila, who considered appealing the ruling but then decided not to, sold a 50 percent share of Masochistic to Siegel, and the gelding was sent to Ellis.

Siegel said last weekend that she was approached by an intermediary, handicapper Aaron Hesz, inquiring whether she was interested in buying into Masochistic. It did not take long to agree to a deal.

“This horse was intriguing, and I didn’t have anything running worth a darn,” she recalled last weekend. “I thought, ‘If he looks like he could improve, this could be fun.’ ”

Siegel joined Will Shamlian in the partnership that owns Masochistic. The two went to Beverly Hills High School together in the 1980s.

“There were a few of us there that were racetrack junkies,” Siegel said. “It’s a small world.”

While 2014 was a year of controversy for Masochistic and his connections, this year has been different.

“I don’t think anyone holds [all that] against the horse,” Ellis said.

With Ellis, Masochistic has improved rapidly.

A gelding by Sought After, Masochistic won his graded stakes debut and his first start for Ellis in the Grade 2 Kona Gold Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on April 11. He won his Grade 1 debut in the Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs June 27. The only blemish on his record this year is a second, at 2-5, in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs at Del Mar on July 26.

“He didn’t like Del Mar,” Ellis said. “Early on, the track was a little loose. It was brand new.”

In the last few weeks, Masochistic has worked quickly for the Santa Anita Sprint Championship, including six furlongs in 1:11.20 last Saturday under jockey Tyler Baze, his regular rider.

“It was pretty amazing,” Ellis said. “This track is not that fast, and he worked strongly. It was comparable to the way he worked before the Triple Bend.”

Those races have led to the Santa Anita Sprint Championship and hopes for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

“We’re expecting a good race,” Siegel said. “He loves Santa Anita.”