THOR'S ECHO HANDICAP

THOR’S ECHO HANDICAP QUOTES
     

RAFAEL BEJARANO, BIG MACHER, WINNER: “He was looking over at K Thirty Eight a little bit. Finally he took off and showed me a big kick.

“I’ve been working him a lot in the mornings. The thing with him is the break. He gets nervous in the gate. Today, I just left him alone and let him do what he wanted.”



TRAINER QUOTES



            RICHARD BALTAS, BIG MACHER, WINNER: “He’s a very good horse. I only had one three quarter work in him but he had a lot of long gallops. He’s had good works, but horses like him, they aren’t hard to train. I didn’t really have him cranked, and for him to run eight and four (1:08 4/5) …Karen’s horse (trainer of K Thirty Eight, Karen Headley) ran great. There’s no easy races in California.

“He means everything to me. I mean, a horse that can take you to Dubai, take you to Breeders’ Cups…Sometimes things don’t work out. He broke badly a few times and then he had a setback but we did the right thing. We gave him plenty of time. He’s a special, special horse. I have a lot of feelings for this horse. This feels good.

“I was nervous today because I was second guessing myself. I didn’t know if I had him totally cranked. I thought he was ready a couple of weeks ago. The Thor’s Echo came up and it’s a lot easier than running against open company and that’s what’s nice about being a Cal-bred. I also thought it was a good spring board for his next start. If he comes back well, and I think he will, we’ll point him towards the Bing Crosby (Grade I, six furlongs on July 29 at Del Mar.)”