Little Mike on the Comeback Trail

Four-time grade I winner Little Mike has not raced since winning the Flying Pidgeon Stakes May 17, 2014, at Gulfstream Park, but trainer Carlo Vaccarezza is preparing the gelding for a 2016 comeback.

Bred and trained by Vaccarezza for his wife, Priscilla, Little Mike jogged for the first time Dec. 30 on the main track at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream Park's satellite training facility.

"He's back," Vaccarezza told the Gulfstream media relations department. "We tack-walked him for two weeks and he just jogged the wrong way. We'll probably do that for two or three weeks and we'll see. He'll tell us when he's ready to start galloping.

"He looks phenomenal. He looks really, really, really good. Let's hope the time we gave him will pay off. You never know until you start to put a little pressure on them."

Little Mike, a Florida-bred son of Spanish Steps who turns 9 on New Year's Day, has 14 wins and $3,543,012 in purse earnings from 29 lifetime starts including the 2012 Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT). His other grade I wins came in the Turf Classic and Arlington Million in 2012 and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in 2013.

After finishing seventh in defense of his Breeders' Cup Turf title in 2013, Little Mike ran ninth in the 2013 Hong Kong Cup (HK-I). He was sidelined five months before returning in the Flying Pidgeon but has dealt with assorted physical issues since the victory.

"The horse didn't come back too well from Hong Kong," Vaccarezza said. "Then I ran him in the Flying Pidgeon and he won that day. He has been off for almost two years. He's lightly raced, let's put it that way. He's a young 9, and he's a late May foal, anyway.

"We'll see. One thing for sure, I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize the horse. He'll tell us. If I see that he doesn't come back well from either a gallop or a breeze, I will definitely retire him."

Vaccarezza said he has an arrangement to send Little Mike to Old Friends in Georgetown, Ky., upon retirement. Little Mike has an affinity for Gulfstream, where he has won six of eight lifetime starts, five of them stakes.

"We have a group of vets and everybody just gave us a clean, clean bill of health," Vaccarezza said. "It would be nice, hopefully in the next few months, to maybe have a race here at Gulfstream. This is his home grounds. He's a favorite horse here in South Florida."