Cyclometer Needs an Alert Beginning

Cyclometer, a 6-year-old Cyclotron horse blessed with natural speed, has been victimized by slow starts in his last three races. Team Headley hopes that won’t happen when the California-bred chestnut runs in Saturday’s Grade II Potrero Grande Stakes for older horses at 6 ½ furlongs on the main track.

“He runs in a figure-eight, but he just doesn’t like it, so he kind of flips his nose,” said trainer Karen Headley, on behalf of her father, Bruce, who trains Cyclometer. “The timing hasn’t been right.”

Fortunately, it’s been right most of the time. A figure-eight is a noseband that crosses from the top of a horse’s cheekbone on one side, over the nose to the chin groove on the other side, under the horse’s chin, and back up to the opposite cheekbone.

It is used to remind the horse to keep its mouth closed and prevents him from crossing his jaw, and its design provides more expansion of the nostrils.

Cyclometer has a 5-5-3 record from 19 starts, with earnings of $333,004.

The field for the Potrero Grande: Mongolian Saturday, Aaron Gryder, 6-1; Wine Police, Martin Garcia, 4-1; Zeewat, Mario Gutierrez, 12-1; Midnight Transfer, Joe Talamo, 8-1; Crimson Giant, Modesto Linares, 50-1; Wild Dude, Rafael Bejarano, 8-5; Big Macher, Tyler Baze, 5-2; and Cyclometer, Edwin Maldonado, 5-1.