Masochistic Blazes in 2016 Debut

A more than eight month layoff didn't change much—Masochistic is still one fast animal.

In his return to racing July 8 at Santa Anita Park, after recovering from a fractured hind cannon that likely occurred during his 14th-place run in the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I), the grade I-winning Sought After gelding broke well, set blazing fractions, and pulled away with ease from an optional-claiming allowance field without any asking from jockey Mike Smith to win by 6 1/4 lengths. 

The 6-year-old owned by Los Pollos Hermanos Racing and Jay Em Ess Stable hit the front with ease and set fractions of :21.53 and :43.61 through a half-mile with his ears pricked. Smith shook the reins in the stretch and Masochistic ran on through six furlongs in 1:07.42 and finished off the 6 1/2-furlong event in 1:13.74. Heir of Storm was the second-place finisher, 4 1/2 lengths clear of Indexical.

"That's just not normal," Smith said. "That's crazy. Ron's done a great job bringing him back. ... He said, 'I'm running him' and that was a good choice, because he's doing so good and just look at him."

Smith wasn't surprised by how easy Masochistic did it, because he's fooled him with speedy breezes during morning workouts.

"He's fooled me so many times—every time in the morning—so I knew he was fooling me," Smith said. "I never dreamed that he'd do what he just did. That was scary easy."

Trainer Ron Ellis was so impressed Friday afternoon that he stayed in the winner's circle to watch the replay on the Santa Anita infield big screen.

"Visually, I would have never thought he was doing that," Ellis said of the swift fractions. "I thought he was going :22, :45 and I looked at the clock and said 'damn.' And the horses were struggling behind him. ... It was pretty amazing, really. You could tell he had plenty left, because Mike just let the reins go and he just took right off. He's pretty damn fast."

Ellis said both six-furlong Bing Crosby (gr. I) July 31 and the seven-furlong Pat O'Brien (gr. II) Aug. 27, both at Del Mar, are under consideration for Masochistic's next race.

"We'll see," Ellis said. "We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it's nice to see him come back."

A seven-time winner from 12 starts, Masochistic now has $652,550 in earnings. In 2015, he won the Kona Gold (gr. II) and Triple Bend (gr. I) at Santa Anita, and ran second in the Bing Crosby.