Big Bazinga Blue Grass Bound
At 9 a.m. Sunday, Derby Dreamers Racing Stable’s Big Bazinga worked four furlongs in :47.60 with Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard as he continues to prepare for Saturday’s $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass (G1).
“I just told (Hernandez) to do a nice maintenance work,” trainer Katerina Vassilieva said. “He’s a pretty good work horse. He’ll just kind of naturally do it on his own; he doesn’t need to be asked. (I wanted him) just to finish off stronger than the first part and gallop out strongly, which he did. He loves the Polytrack, and he traveled really well over it today. I’m really pleased with him.”
Vassilieva said Big Bazinga’s earlier success on Polytrack was key to making the Toyota Blue Grass a target. The gelding, a Keeneland sales graduate, opened his career last September at Woodbine, winning his first race over the surface and next finishing second in the Grey (G3). After a seventh in the Delta Downs Jackpot (G3), an 11th in the Holy Bull (G2) at Gulfstream and a grass start at Gulfstream, he returned to Polytrack in the Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Spiral (G3) at Turfway Park on March 22, beaten 2½ lengths in finishing fifth.
“He ran really well in the Spiral (G3), so we thought this was the logical next spot for him,” she said.
Vassilieva’s assistant, Amber Mayers, and Big Bazinga arrived at Keeneland a few days after the Spiral.
“(Mayers) says he’s training brilliantly, better than she’s ever seen,” Vassilieva said. “He seems happy. He’s traveling over the surface really well. It’s a surface he already knows and likes, so I think he’s in good shape.”
Hernandez will ride Big Bazinga in the Toyota Blue Grass. Vassilieva said she met the rider at Fair Grounds, where she began her training career in 2011.
Vassilieva drove from Toronto to Lexington yesterday and at 7 a.m. arrived at Keeneland for the first time.
“I’ve just been walking around admiring beautiful Keeneland,” she said. “I’m so excited and grateful to be here. I feel blessed and humbled. It’s only my fourth year of training on my own, so to have a horse like this, to be able to have this experience, is so amazing to me.”
Post positions for the Toyota Blue Grass will be drawn on Wednesday. TVG will carry live coverage of the draw from 11:30 a.m.-noon. The draw will be hosted by Tom Leach and Todd Schrupp.