Big Jag Wins Fifth in a Row

It’s difficult to win five consecutive races with any horse, particularly one whose streak started at the $40,000 claiming level. But that is what Big Jag has achieved for trainer Tim Pinfield, No. 5 coming by 1 3/4 lengths Sunday in the $100,000 On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park.

Big Jag could have been claimed in August at Del Mar for $40,000, but there were no takers and his win at 15-1 that day was the start of the 5-year-old gelding’s roll. Later at Del Mar, Big Jag moved into allowance company and won, and then in October he won the California Sprint Championship at Bay Meadows and the California Cup Sprint at Santa Anita. The win in the On Trust, a 7 1/2-furlong race for California-breds, was his seventh in 14 starts and the $60,000 share increased his purse total to $320,755.

When Big Jag won the first time at Del Mar, he was making his debut for the English-born Pinfield, who had started on his own with just two horses there a year before. Pinfield, 32, inherited Big Jag from his former boss, Darrell Vienna, and his barn now numbers 30 horses.

After running only eight times in three years, Big Jag has been postward five times in less than four months. “I really don’t want to say I wanted to put one over,” Pinfield said, “but when I ran him [for a claiming price], he hadn’t been out in [about a year and a half], and I was just trying to find an easy spot for him.”

Big Jag, owned by Julius Zolezzi of San Diego and ridden by Jose Valdivia Jr., has a history of bad knees. He had never run farther than 6 1/2 furlongs and was the only On Trust starter that had won his previous race. As the favorite, he paid $4.40 to win, reaching the wire in 1:28 2/5. After Big Jag made the lead at the head of the stretch, Bigshot tried to come back at him, but it was Zanie Reality that Valdivia was concerned with nearing the finish. Zanie Reality ran second, beating Bagshot by a neck.

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New York-based trainer Angel Penna Jr. arrived at Hollywood Park on Sunday, just in time to learn that he’ll have Fiji to beat in next Sunday’s $700,000 Matriarch Stakes.

Penna was bringing his 4-year-old filly, Auntie Mame, to run in the Matriarch anyway, but Fiji, who’s lost only one of seven starts this year, gives the fall meet’s richest race an Eclipse Award flavor.

In some voters’ eyes, Fiji has already clinched the Eclipse for females on grass, but a win against her by Auntie Mame might give the electorate pause. Auntie Mame’s overall campaign started with two losses, but since then she’s won three of four, including a win in the Grade I Flower Bowl Handicap at Belmont Park last month.

Fiji’s only loss this year came when the 4-year-old filly ran third after a slow start in the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar. Fiji rebounded to win the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita on Nov. 8. Neil Drysdale waited until this weekend to firm up Fiji’s Matriarch plans, and the decision was reinforced Sunday when she worked seven furlongs on turf in 1:28, with regular jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard.

A field of nine or 10 is likely for the 1 1/4-mile Matriarch. Among the probables are See You Soon and Sonja’s Faith, who ran 1-2 in the Ramona before they were 2-3 in the Yellow Ribbon. They were only a neck apart in the Yellow Ribbon, which Fiji won by two lengths.

See You Soon is trained by Bobby Frankel, who has won the Matriarch the last two years, with Ryafan and Wandesta. Other Matriach probables are Green Jewel, Real Connection, Sophie My Love, Squeak and Witchful Thinking, the Niall O’Callaghan-trained filly who arrived Sunday from Churchill Downs.

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Notes

The Matriarch winds up Hollywood Park’s annual turf festival, which starts Friday with a pair of $200,000 races, the Miesque and the Hollywood Turf Express Stakes. Other festival races are the $300,000 Citation Handicap and the $250,000 Generous Stakes, both on Saturday; and the $500,000 Early Times Hollywood Derby, which will be on the same card as the Matriarch. . . . The day after he won the Hollywood Prevue with Premier Property, trainer Bob Baffert won an allowance race with Prime Timber, a $375,000 auction buy by Aaron and Marie Jones. Between them, Premier Property and Prime Timber are undefeated in five races. They are some of the raw material that might give Baffert a shot at a third straight Kentucky Derby win.