Big Macher refuses to yield in Bing Crosby

It was four across the track rounding the turn in Sunday's Grade 1, $300,500

Bing

Crosby at Del Mar, but

Big Macher quickly separated himself from the pack before withstanding 3-5

favorite Goldencents' wide rally to post a half-length win under jockey Tyler

Baze.

Campaigned by Tachycardia Stables and Tom Mansor, the Beau Genius gelding was

the 9-1 fourth pick against six rivals and returned $21.20 to his backers for

this second straight graded victory. In addition to the $180,000 winner's share,

he earned an automatic berth to the

Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint

at Santa Anita in the fall when finishing six furlongs over the Polytrack in

1:08.82, just off the 1:08.17 track record set by Euroears in 2011.

Pablo Del Monte exploded from the gates to take the lead in the six-furlong

sprint, but had plenty of company in the form of Indexical to his inside and Big

Macher on the outside through an opening quarter in :22 2/5. Those two, and

Seeking the Sherif on the far outside, drew even with Pablo Del Monte entering

the turn and raced in tandem for a brief moment.

By the time the quartet had exited the turn, Baze had gone to work on Big

Macher and the four-year-old responded with a surge down the lane. Goldencents

had bided his time just in behind the front runners on the backstretch and was

full of run. Angling out, the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner came flying only to

run out of room late in suffering his second straight close second in the race.

It was 1 1/2 lengths behind Goldencents to lightly raced former claimer

Seeking the Sherif, who had his four-race win streak snapped in this, his stakes

debut. Indexical nosed out Kobe's Back for fourth, while Pablo Del Monte and

Declassify completed the order under the wire. Wine Police was withdrawn.

Like Seeking the Sherif, Big Macher is a former claimer. The bay came to

trainer Richard Baltas' shedrow following his career debut, a $20,000 maiden

claimer, last July at Del Mar. He took three more tries to break his maiden, all

in claiming contests, but his 4 3/4-length initial score was good enough to

ensure he would take a step up in class for his next start. That came in a

state-bred allowance at Hollywood Park, which Big Macher captured by 4 1/2

lengths, and he closed out 2013 with a pair of close placings against open

company.

Big Macher scored in his stakes debut while returning to the state-bred ranks

for his season opener in the January 25 California Cup Sprint. He moved on to

graded rivals in his next two, finishing a half-length second in the San Carlos

and getting his nose down on the line to take the Potrero Grande last out on

April 12, before being sidelined by a quarter crack.

With a successful return to competition, the California-bred gelding now

boasts $496,428 in career earnings to go along with his 11-5-2-2 scorecard.

Bred by Ballena Vista Farm, Big Macher brought $10,000 as a

Barretts October

yearling. He is the first registered stakes winner out of the unraced Kris S.

mare Insight, and comes from the same female family as Grade 1-scoring fillies

Flip's Pleasure and Swap Fliparoo. Farther back, this line includes champion

Jamestown.

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