From DMTC
DEL MAR, Calif. (Aug. 24, 2016) — California-bred Masochistic, one of the top sprinters in the country in 2015, made a strong return to racing after a nine-month layoff in an allowance race at Santa Anita on July 8.
The 6-year-old son of Sought After, bred by Francoise Dupuis & Louise Julian, led wire-to-wire and finished 6 ¼ lengths in front, covering 6 ½ furlongs in 1:13.74 under Mike Smith.
“Visually, it was very impressive, he looks like a different horse this year,” Ellis said. “He always used to be a bit of a run-off and it was nice to see how he settled for Mike. Even though they were going fast, (Masochistic) had his ears up in the air and was really relaxed, which was kind of a different thing for him.”
The result was vastly different from Masochistic’s previous start, when he finished a distant last of 14 in the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.
“He fractured a hind leg coming out of the gate,” Ellis said. “Mike said that his hind end gave way at the start, and that’s why he ran so poorly. It was a hairline fracture, he didn’t appear lame or anything. To find it, we had to run him through a nuclear scan and the hind leg lit up on X-rays.”
Time off and the healing process led to the strong comeback in July and Masochistic has been training forwardly for Saturday’s Grade II $200,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs on the main track.
The post position draw was scheduled for later Wednesday, but the expected entries, in alphabetical order are Cautious Giant (Santiago Gonzalez), Indexical (Mario Gutierrez), Masochistic (Tyler Baze), Outside Nashville (Rafael Bejarano) and Vyjack (Flavien Prat) for the second leg of the summer graded sprint series here. Lord Nelson won the first, the Grade I $300,000 Bing Crosby on July 31.
“The smaller (field) the better for me,” Ellis said. “I know it doesn’t make for a very attractive betting race, but I don’t know if I’d be very excited about running against him right now.”
If all goes well on Saturday, Masochistic will be in for several weeks of training before being given the opportunity for redemption for 2015 when the Breeders’ Cup returns to his home track at Santa Anita. He has seven wins in 12 starts and earnings of $652,550.
“If he runs like I think he will (in the O’Brien), he won’t run again until the Breeders’ Cup,” Ellis said. “He won his Grade I last year (Triple Bend at Santa Anita) off a two-month layoff and this will be a couple months before the Breeders’ Cup. He’s not a very big horse and he likes his races spaced.”
The Pat O’Brien is a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on November 4 at Santa Anita. The six-furlong $1.5 million Twin Spires Sprint is the following day.
“It’s kind of strange that this is for the Dirt Mile, but I don’t think he’ll have any trouble getting into the Sprint,” Ellis said. “It (Sprint) is more money and he’s never been around two turns. I think he could get a mile, but it’s more money and the way he’s run at Santa Anita, I’d prefer the Sprint.”