Masochistic to Make Return in Midnight Lute Stakes
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Masochistic
Masochistic, the horse who has been embroiled in so much controversy since his racing career began in 2014, is closing in on the age of 8 and will make his return to racing off a nearly eight-month layoff with a new trainer Dec. 30 in the $100,000 Midnight Lute Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park.
Co-owner Samantha Siegel of Jay Em Ess Stable has seen her fair share of quality horses get into their older racing years and is cautiously optimistic regarding the speedy, California-bred grade 1 winner ahead of his first start for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
"Most of them (as they get older) will work as well as they used to in the mornings, but you don't know until the afternoon," Siegel said. "They all know when the real work starts."
Siegel admitted that she and her partner, Will Shamlian of Los Pollos Hermanos Racing, will use the Midnight Lute as a measuring stick of sorts for Masochistic, but the 6 1/2-furlong test will be no walkover for the Sought After gelding.
The field also includes graded winners Solid Wager and Calculator from the barn of Peter Miller, and five other graded stakes-placed runners.
But the main threat could be Kaleem Shah's up-and-coming sprinter Americanize, who won the Damascus Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths Nov. 3 at Del Mar, then finished fourth—behind a trio of grade 1 winners—in the Cigar Mile Handicap Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) last-time out Dec. 2 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
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"We'll see if he's back," Siegel said. "With a horse this fast, it's hard to tell where he's at, and 6 1/2 furlongs is a hard distance to start back off a layoff. Bob hasn't turned the screws really on him, but he thinks he's in a good place to start."
Baffert was not available for comment Dec. 27.
Masochistic most recently finished 13th in the Churchill Downs Stakes Presented by Twinspires.com (G2) May 6, before he got some turnout time at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky. He began his 7-year-old season with a second-place finish in the Triple Bend Stakes (G1), a race he won in 2015.
Ron Ellis trained Masochistic to the Triple Bend victory, as well as the gelding's first graded score in the 2015 Kona Gold (G2), but the Churchill Downs Stakes was his last race with the conditioner. Masochistic was disqualified from his second-place finish in the 2016 TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) after he he tested positive for trace amounts of the anabolic steroid stanozolol, but Shamlian said the move to Baffert was not related.
"We decided it was in the horse's best interest," Shamlian said in June. "We just weren't seeing eye-to-eye with Ron at the end. No hard feelings. I like Ron a lot. It's just a situational thing. ... The (Breeders' Cup) hurts, but it has nothing to do with it. I don't hold it against him and I think Ron got a raw deal with that."
Ellis took over training Masochistic from A.C. Avila in 2015. Avila also ran into drug trouble with Masochistic in 2014. In his debut in March of 2014, Masochistic finished fifth at odds of 8-1 and post-race tests revealed levels in excess of the allowed amount of the tranquilizer acepromazine. Masochistic then blew away a maiden special weight field by 14 lengths at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby day in 2014, and went off at odds of 2-1, which drew accusations of a potential betting coup.
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Masochistic has eight wins from 16 starts and has earned $857,550.
Santa Anita Park, Saturday, December 30, 2017, Race 8Entries: Midnight Lute S. (G3)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Silent Bird (KY)
Kent J. Desormeaux
120
Mark Glatt
5/2
2
2Ohio (BRZ)
Brice Blanc
120
Paulo H. Lobo
20/1
3
3Ike Walker (KY)
Irad Ortiz, Jr.
120
Jerry Hollendorfer
10/1
4
4Masochistic (CA)
Drayden Van Dyke
120
Bob Baffert
5/2
5
5Americanize (KY)
Rafael Bejarano
122
Simon Callaghan
2/1
6
6Solid Wager (CA)
Victor Espinoza
122
Peter Miller
10/1
7
7Tough Sunday (CA)
Tyler Baze
120
Steven Miyadi
8/1
8
8Calculator (FL)
Javier Castellano
120
Peter Miller
4/1
9
9Smokey Image (CA)
Gary L. Stevens
120
Carla Gaines
12/1
