Big Macher scratched from Saturday's Bing Crosby
Big Macher, whose victory in the 2014 Bing Crosby provided trainer Richard Baltas with his first stakes victory, and impetus for a rise in prominence of the Baltas stable, was scratched Friday from Saturday’s Bing Crosby Stakes.
Baltas declined to go into specifics of Big Macher’s condition, but said the horse was “going to be OK,” and retirement for the 7-year-old gelding, a California-bred son of Beau Genius, was a strong possibility.
Claimed for $20,000 out of his first start here in 2013 by Tom Mansor and Tachycardia Stables, Big Macher was competing at the graded stakes level the following year, posting victories in the Grade II Potrero Grande in April and coming back to win the Crosby in July.
Big Macher ran in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 2014 and 15 and, in March of 2015, went to Dubai and finished fifth in the $2 million Golden Shaheen. Away from the races for 19 months, in part due to a ligament injury, Big Macher made a successful comeback against state breds in the Thors Echo Handicap at Santa Anita on June 11 and worked five furlongs here on July 22 in a bullet :59 flat.
“He does have a special place in my heart,” Baltas said before the Thor’s Echo. “He brought a lot of joy to our lives and really kicked things off for me.”
Baltas had his most successful year in 2016, his runners accumulating purse earnings of more than $4.6 million, and is on pace to surpass that in 2017. Through Thursday, Equibase statistics show Baltas at No. 21 in North America by earnings with his horses accumulating purse totals of $2,992,471 on 53 wins from 290 starts.
STELLAR WIND GETS THE EDGE FROM VALE DORI ON MORNING LINE
Defending champion Stellar Wind was listed as the 6-5 favorite on oddsmaker Russ Hudak’s morning line for Sunday’s $300,000 Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes. The John Sadler-trained 5-year-old will break from the No. 2 post in the field of six, one spot outside 7-5 second choice Vale Dori.
And that’s a bit of a sticking point with Vale Dori trainer Bob Baffert.
“She draws inside again,” Baffert said. “I just can’t draw outside that mare.”
The field from the rail: Motown Lady (Kent Desormeaux, 12-1), Vale Dori (Mike Smith, 7-5), Stellar Wind (Victor Espinoza, 6-5), Autumn Flower (Martin Pedroza, 15-1), Shenandoah Queen (Drayden Van Dyke, 20-1) and Faithfully (Rafael Bejarano, 4-1).
The Clement L. Hirsch is a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $2 million Longines Distaff here on November 3.
JOCKEY NEWS: FREY OUT; FRANCO TAKES THE FIFTH(S)
Jockey Kyle Frey’s meeting has come to an end after he submitted to surgery on Tuesday for an infected leg.
Frey, 25, from Tracy, Ca., had been riding recently despite pain in his right leg in the area where he suffered a compound fracture of the tibia four years ago in a spill at Philadelphia Park. The 2011 winner of an Eclipse Award as the outstanding apprentice rider in North America tied for ninth in the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting with 14 wins and piloted Shane’s Girlfriend to victory in the Iowa Oaks for Doug O’Neill earlier this month.
But when the leg pain persisted Frey went to a doctor on Monday, his agent Mark North said, and an MRI showed an infection and abscess around the rod in his right thigh that required the surgery performed on Tuesday.
“The doctors said he’d be out for three months, but Kyle said ‘Bet on me being back in two,’” North said. One goal is for Frey to return for the fall meeting here in November.
Jockey Geovanni Franco has caught the eye of longshot players with his first two wins at Del Mar. The 26-year-old from Mexico City won Wednesday’s fifth race aboard Clean Living ($64.40) and Thursday’s fifth with Get Em Up Scout ($21.40).
Franco, in the ninth year of a career that has encompassed several tracks but predominantly in the Midwest, notched the first graded stakes victory of his career in April aboard longshot Inside Straight in the $750,000 Grade II Oaklawn Handicap at Oaklawn Park.
Currently 47th among North American riders for money earnings with more than $2.2 million for 2017, Franco came to Del Mar “to ride against and learn from the best,” his agent James Giannone said.
CLOSERS – Trainer Rafael DeLeon marks his 56th birthday today … Gold Cup at Santa Anita winner Cupid worked 6 furlongs Friday morning in 1:11.60, best of 10 at the distance. “A good work for him and he really needed it,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “Just got caught up with him. No plans (for a next start).” … Other selected works from 155 officially timed Friday: Irap (4f, :50.40), Mopotism (4f, :50.40), Ocho Ocho Ocho (4f, :49.80), Sense of Glory (5f, :59.20) and Paradise Woods (6f, 1:13.00) … Word has been received of the death of Ellie Carno, widow of longtime Southern California trainer Lou Carno. Mrs. Carno passed away of brain cancer on July 22 in Encinitas. Her body was donated to science at the UCSD Hospital. No services are planned … More than 100 were in attendance at a memorial service for longtime jockey agent Ivan Puhich here Friday morning.
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club