By Bloodhorse.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (Oct. 25, 2015) — Trainer Ron Ellis could only shake his head with a slight grin after watching Masochistic’s final Santa Anita Park workout Oct. 25 before shipping to Keeneland for a run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (gr. I).
He had decided earlier to not have jockey Mike Smith—who will ride the Sought After gelding in the Sprint—aboard for the work, so the notoriously speedy 5-year-old wouldn’t run too fast.
But, even with exercise rider Baltazar Contreras up, Masochistic did what he always does—run fast. Ellis timed his five-furlong drill in :58 flat and Santa Anita’s clockers officially had him in :58 2/5. The gelding’s ears were pricked the entire time and appeared to breeze the distance with ease.
“He would have gone :56 if Mike Smith was on him,” Ellis said. “He went off nice and relaxed, but he was smokin’. That’s as easy as a horse can do it.”
Ellis admits it’s a legitimate challenge to prepare a horse like Masochistic, who is so fast in the mornings and does it with ease. Three of his last four workouts prior to Sunday were bullets and the only other was a :47 1/5 drill Oct. 12—third fastest of 33 that day—that earned the rare Southern California “breezing” tag. His work Sunday was another bullet—the fastest of 50—and only one of five runs under a minute. Professor Berns and Surfside Tiara were tied for second-fastest at :59 2/5.
“I think it hurt him in his last race,” Ellis said of Masochistic’s fourth-place finish in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (gr. I), when he dueled and held a length lead in the stretch only to tire in the final sixteenth. “We can never ask him to finish (in training), because if I ask him to finish, he’s going to go in :56 and it’s not smart. When he went :43 4/5 (in the race), I don’t train a horse to go :43 4/5. I think he legitimately got tired, because I didn’t train him to do something like that.”
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But the Sprint Championship was coming off a more than two-month layoff, and the trainer thinks his second race off the bench will be a significant improvement.
“Now that he’s got that under his belt, he’s super fit,” Ellis said. “It’s different. Coming off a two-month layoff, these kind of horses are hard to get fit. I’m hoping now, if he sits off the pace a little bit and goes slower—like :45—whether he’s five back or in front, his fitness level should be really good.”
The Sprint will be Masochistic’s third straight start at six furlongs, but Ellis feels he’s best at seven furlongs or a one-turn mile, and that will be his focus beyond the Breeders’ Cup. His two stakes victories this year were in the Triple Bend (gr. I) at seven furlongs and the Kona Gold (gr. II) at 6 1/2.
“I know that about him, but I just didn’t have the right races leading up to stretch him out to the (Breeders’ Cup Dirt) Mile,” Ellis said. “That’s what our plan is next year—to stretch him out. I think he’ll be super at the one-turn mile.”