By DRF.com
DEL MAR, Calif. – Lovesick Blues, winner of the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on July 26 at Del Mar, will not start again until the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Trainer Librado Barocio confirmed plans to train Lovesick Blues into the Breeders’ Cup, which means the 7-year-old gelding will go 99 days between starts.
“My gut’s telling me to train him up to the race,” Barocio said last weekend at Del Mar. “He’s good fresh. When I first got him, he fired fresh. I might follow the same pattern unless he’s going crazy. Then, I’ll look for something.”
Barocio ’s Mia Familia Racing Stables purchased Lovesick Blues last year from owner-breeder Nick Alexander. In his first start for Barocio on March 8, after a seven-month layoff, Lovesick, Blues finished second in the Grade 3 San Simeon on turf at Santa Anita. He later won the Siren Lure on turf at Santa Anita, and scored at 18.60-1 when he switched to dirt for the Bing Crosby.
Lovesick Blues earned a career-high 105 Beyer Speed Figure winning the six-furlong Bing Crosby. The win was his ninth from 41 starts; Lovesick Blues has earned $770,000. In five starts for Barocio, Lovesick Blues has won two races and $338,000.
Because he was not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup as a foal, a $100,000 fee is required to make Lovesick Blues eligible.
Lovesick Blues is nominated to the seven-furlong Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes on Saturday at Del Mar, but Barocio never intended to start Lovesick Blues again this summer. A Breeders’ Cup prep was considered for the Santa Anita autumn meet, but Barocio now plans to train him up to the event.
“I don’ think I need to run against the big boys [in fall at Santa Anita],” Barocio said. “I don’t want to take anything out of him. I want to keep it in him.”
Lovesick Blues, whose rider is Geovanni Franco, has been galloping daily at Del Mar according to Barocio. If he wins the BC Sprint off a 99-day break, it would be the second-longest by a BC Sprint winner. Precisionist won the 1985 BC Sprint off a 133-day layoff, from June 23 to Nov. 2.
Lovesick Blues will try to join three others who won the BC Sprint as 7-year-olds: Cardmania, 1993; Elmhurst, 1997; and Whitmore, 2020.