Roll On Big Joe's sudden change of plan pays off in Palos Verdes Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. - Until Saturday morning, the 5-year-old gelding Roll On Big Joe was scheduled to be flown from Santa Anita to Oaklawn Park on Tuesday for the $145,000 Commodore Stakes for sprinters on Feb. 22.

The plan was abandoned when word emerged on Saturday morning that the multiple stakes winner Big City Lights was an intended scratch from the Grade 3 Palos Verdes Stakes later that afternoon.

Roll On Big Joe stayed at Santa Anita and rolled to his first stakes win in the Palos Verdes Stakes at six furlongs.

Ridden by Umberto Rispoli, Roll On Big Joe ($6) led throughout the Palos Verdes, pulling away from four rivals to win by four lengths in 1:08.60. Roll On Big Joe earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 102.

Winning trainer Bob Hess Jr. said Roll On Big Joe did not need the lead, and that Rispoli was given clearance to ride the race as he saw fit.

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“They’re both athletes,” Hess said of the gelding and rider. “He played the break and that was the way to go.”

Roll On Big Joe, who races for the partnership of Rancho Temescal, White Fence LLC, and Richard Hale, won for the second time in as many starts this year. Roll On Big Joe won an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Jan. 3 to end a four-race losing streak since an allowance race here last May.

In the Palos Verdes, Roll On Big Joe led narrowly over 9-2 For All Mankind through an opening quarter-mile in 22.40 seconds and was a length in front of For All Mankind after a half-mile in 44.16.

The trailing pack could not get closer. For All Mankind held second, finishing three-quarters of a length in front of 3-2 favorite Bartholdy. Mbagnick and Anarchist completed the order of finish.

Trainer Richard Mandella wrote in a text message on Saturday that Big City Lights was withdrawn to give the 6-year-old horse more time between a sharp win in the California Cup Sprint on Jan. 18 and a scheduled start in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen sprint in Dubai on April 5.

Roll On Big Joe, a Florida-bred by the Malibu Moon stallion Prospective, has won 5 of 15 starts and earned $298,580. The Palos Verdes Stakes was Roll On Big Joe’s second appearance in a stakes. He was a well-beaten second at 21-1 to Straight No Chaser in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship in September.

Straight No Chaser later won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar in November and was named the champion sprinter of 2024 at the Eclipse Awards in Florida last month.

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