Game On Dude, Ron the Greek face off in historic Big ‘Cap

Game On Dude will be tough to catch in the Big ‘Cap (Benoit Photos)

For the first time in its 76-year history, Saturday’s Grade
1, $750,000
Santa Anita Handicap will feature a showdown between two past winners — Bob Baffert’s Game On Dude
and Bill Mott’s Ron the Greek.

Game On Dude, winner of the 2011 Big ‘Cap, enters the 1 1/4-mile event off as
an easy front-running title defense score in the Grade 2 San Antonio on February
3 while Ron the Greek, Florida-bred and based who shipped into Santa Anita to
take last year’s Santa Anita Handicap, romped by 11 1/4 lengths in the Florida Sunshine Millions Classic
from off the pace at Gulfstream Park on January 19.

With contrasting styles, both six-year-olds are in the hands
of Hall of Fame trainers and each earned dazzling BRIS Speed figures in their
last starts, with Game On Dude securing a 109 and Ron the Greek a 112 — all of which helps to set the stage for an epic showdown as 10 older horses
get set to run in North America’s longest continually run
“hundred grander.”

“I think he’s better than he was two years ago. His sheet numbers are better
and he’s doing good,” Baffert spoke with confidence about Game On Dude’s chances
in the Big ‘Cap.

Ron the Greek left his rivals well behind in the FSM Classic (Adam Coglianese Photography)

Ron the Greek, on the other hand, has proven capable of winning from
off-the-pace as well as on the lead, but will likely employ the former strategy
with Game On Dude’s expected pacesetting scheme. The son of Full Mandate won
last year’s Big ‘Cap from well off-the-pace under Jose Lezcano, who continued to
pilot the bay throughout 2012 to a win in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap
and placings in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap and Grade 1 Whitney Handicap.

“He’s doing very well. We have been here (at Santa Anita) since Sunday,”
assistant trainer Rudolph Brisset said. “We did
the exact same thing last year, shipping in the Sunday before. He is doing as
good as he was last year, but this year it is a very different race.

“We have to
stop talking about last year. Last year, the set up, it was unusual, they went
(the first half-mile) in forty-four, so it is a really different race this year;
it will be. This year, if they go forty-six and change, we’ll be lucky. If Game
On Dude gets the lead, maybe forty-eight and change.”

Ron the Greek didn’t do so well in his final two races of 2012, finishing
sixth in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and fourth in the Breeders’ Cup
Classic, but more than showed his former spark with his romping win in the
Florida Sunshine Millions Classic on January 19.

Suggestive Boy flew home in the Arcadia last out (Benoit Photos)

“He’s doing great. He’s here at Santa Anita, so we’ll just walk him over and
take a shot. He’ll be running late and I feel he’ll be very competitive,”
Baffert said of Guilt Trip.

The Big ‘Cap is the feature event on a day that will also include three other
stakes. Champion Beholder tops a field of eight sophomore fillies going a mile
in the Grade 1 Las Virgenes while Suggestive Boy heads the same number of
runners in the Grade 1, $300,000
Frank
E. Kilroe Mile at the same distance but on the turf.

Suggestive Boy will see some familiar faces in the Kilroe Mile, having
defeated the returning Wilkinson and Silentio in the Grade 2 Arcadia on February
2. That was the Ron McAnally charge’s five-year-old bow following three unplaced
efforts against Grade 1 competition in California last fall.

Mr. Commons is looking to improve one spot on his runner-up finish in the
Kilroe Mile 12 months ago, and is returning off a more than three-month break
having last been seen finishing fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Fed Biz, a head winner of the Grade 2 San Fernando to start the year, was
third behind Big ‘Cap contenders Guilt Trip and Stephanoatsee in the Strub and
will be trying turf for the first time in the Kilroe Mile for Baffert.