Roll On Big Joe rolls to Bet on Sunshine win
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Roll On Big Joe rolled to his third stakes win of the year, scoring a 4 1/2-length victory in the $269,500 Bet On Sunshine Stakes for older sprinters on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Roll On Big Joe ($7.12) tracked pacesetter Glengarry, put away that foe coming to the quarter pole, and drew clear in the stretch of the six-furlong race.
“He was traveling great the entire race for me,” jockey Julien Leparoux said. “He relaxed beautifully. I wanted to get him started early, but not too early. He just exploded and finished up very well at the end.”
Mondogetsbuckets rolled by Durante late to be second by 1 1/2 lengths. The winning time on a fast track was 1:09.58.
Trained by Bob Hess Jr., Roll On Big Joe hinted at his quality last fall when he was a distant second in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship to Straight No Chaser, who went on to win the 2024 Breeders' Cup Sprint and earn a divisional title.
This year, Roll On Big Joe won the Grade 3 Palos Verdes in February at Santa Anita and the Grade 3 Kelly's Landing in June at Churchill Downs.
In the Kelly's Landing, he edged Dr. Venkman by three-quarters of a length. Dr. Venkman was third in the Breeders' Cup Sprint earlier Saturday at Del Mar behind Bentornato.
Roll On Big Joe was fifth in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby in July at Del Mar and fourth in the Louisville Thoroughbred Society in September at Churchill Downs, which was also won by Bentornato. Although he was coming into Saturday's race off those two losses, the class of company Roll On Big Joe faced made him the favorite in the Bet On Sunshine.
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