Just as bazinga! has entered pop culture vocabulary, so Big Bazinga
A zinger used by the nerdy genius character Sheldon on the CBS comedy “The
“He’s coming off an excellent race,” Vasilieva said, referring to Big
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Big Bazinga broke his maiden at first asking on the Polytrack at Woodbine,
coming from off the pace to win by a neck. In his next start he was second in
the 1 1/16-mile Grey at Woodbine.
“In the Grey he went to the lead and he got caught,” Vasilieva said. “He has
learned to relax and sit off the pace and come with a late run, although coming
into the cooler weather here he might want to be closer to the pace this time.”
Big Bazinga shipped in to Turfway on Saturday. After jogging Monday, he
galloped a mile and a half Tuesday morning over the Polytrack.
Luis Contreras, who won the Sovereign Award as Canada’s leading jockey in
2011 and 2012, was aboard for the race at Gulfstream and has the mount again
Saturday.
Vasilieva, 31, took out her trainer’s license in 2011 after working for top
Canadian trainer Reade Baker. Vasilieva will be competing Saturday against
Baker, who plans to enter Asserting Bear in the Spiral.
Baker has a history of stakes success at Turfway. He won two of the 2008
Kentucky Cup races, taking the Sprint with Fatal Bullet, later named Canada’s
Sovereign Award champion sprinter and Horse of the Year, and the Kentucky Cup
Distaff with Bear Now, who won the 2008 Sovereign Award as champion older mare.
Like Asserting Bear, Fatal Bullet and Bear Now were owned by Bear Stables.
Asserting Bear has two wins, a second, and a third in seven starts, six of
them coming in his two-year-old season. He broke his maiden on the turf in his
second start, pushing the leader all the way and getting up at the wire. After
finishing off the board in his next start, the Summer, Asserting Bear reeled off
three excellent races in restricted stakes, finishing third in the Cup and
Saucer, winning the Coronation Futurity, and finishing second in the Kingarvie,
all at Woodbine.
In his first start of 2014, Asserting Bear was fifth, beaten less than four
lengths, in the Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs. Baker put blinkers back on for
that race after running without them the previous three starts.
“We put the blinkers back on for the Sam Davis and it helped keep his
attention,” Baker said. “He’s not the easiest horse to train. He doesn’t apply
himself at all in the morning. But the cooler weather (on Saturday) may help
him. When it was 86 degrees and 90 percent humidity down here (Palm Beach Downs
in Florida), he trained poorly, more so than any of the other horses.
“He doesn’t need the lead but he’ll need to stay in the race. We’ll look for
a stalking trip, but maybe 11 other horses will also be looking for that, so
we’ll see how it goes.”
Joe Rocco was aboard for the Sam F. Davis and will be aboard for the Spiral
as well, and Baker expects that consistency to help Asserting Bear as well.
Asserting Bear had his final work on Saturday on the dirt at Palm Beach
Downs, breezing five furlongs in 1:03. He arrived at Turfway Monday morning and
will gallop over the Polytrack on Wednesday.
According to Turfway’s assistant racing secretary and stakes coordinator Tia
Murphy, trainer Wayne Catalano has moved John Battaglia Memorial runner-up Poker
Player from “considering” to “expected to enter.”
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