Little Mike Aims for Saturday Return from 2-Year Layoff

It's been more than two years since 2012 GI Breeders' Cup Turf and GI Arlington Million winner Little Mike (Spanish Steps) was entered in a race. So having to wait an extra couple of days this week to see if a 1 1/16-mile allowance/optional claiming race will go on Saturday at Gulfstream Park shouldn't be a problem for the 9-year-old gelding.

Trainer Carlo Vaccarezza explained in a July 5 phone interview that he had initially expected to enter Little Mike on Monday for the July 9 race. But he said a “glitch” in the racing office's software system caused Gulfstream to push back the taking of entries for Saturday to Thursday. Vaccarezza is hoping the race will fill, because he views it as his best–and maybe only–chance to get a prep race into Little Mike if he is to aim for another score in the Aug. 13 Arlington Million.

“He's a very special horse, and there are a lot of people rooting for him,” Vaccarezza said of Little Mike, who's most endearing trait as a fan favorite is his brazen front-running style. “Every time that we put the tack on him, he knows it means business. Just to bring him to the track we've had to take him with the pony, just to calm him down a bit. His competitive edge and the fire in his eyes are still there.”

It's been a long comeback road for the $3.5 million-earning Florida homebred, who races in the name of Vaccarezza's wife, Priscilla. His last race was a May 17, 2014, score in the Flying Pidgeon S. at Gulfstream. “He won the race, but he was kind of off,” Carlo Vaccarezza said. “He wasn't the same Little Mike.”

Vaccarezza said myriad nagging issues were the immediate problem two years ago, but an arduous 2013 campaign is what really took its toll on Little Mike. That year started with off-the-board finishes in a pair of Group 1 Dubai stakes races and ended with a ninth-place finish in the G1 Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin. In between were unsuccessful defenses of his Arlington Million and BC Turf victories, although a win in the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park was a highlight of that campaign. “The biggest mistake was the trip to Hong Kong,” Vaccarezza said. “It took a lot out of him.”

Suspensory problems and then some “small issues with his ankles” required rest, but not surgery, Vaccarezza said. Little Mike spent the latter half of 2014 and most of 2015 recuperating in Kentucky at WinStar Farm and under the veterinary care of Dr. Larry Bramlage at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. Eventually he shipped to Ocala Stud in Florida, where swimming therapy was his main form of exercise.

In December 2015, Vaccarezza brought Little Mike back under his shed row, progressing from walking under tack to light jogging to galloping. “Finally, when he was 100%, I started doing two-minute licks, and he responded,” Vaccarezza said. “He's completely healed. He wants to be a racehorse. He doesn't want to be in a field. Every vet that has seen the horse has said there is no reason whatsoever that he can't go back into training.

“This horse is very unique,” Vaccarezza continued. “He keeps himself very fit. If you had seen him eight months ago, you would have never thought this was a horse that hasn't been to the track in over a year. He has the tendency and the genes to keep himself very fit. It didn't take me that long to get him back into full fitness. The tack walking, the jogging, the light galloping, then workouts–he got there very fast.”

Vaccarezza acknowledged that the goal of making this year's Arlington Million is ambitious, but he's not going to push Little Mike if the gelding doesn't respond in a way that shows he's up to the challenge.

“[The Million] would be the perfect scenario,” Vaccarezza said. “We all know he can run, we all know he likes the [Arlington] turf, and now the question is 'How good is he at nine years old?'”

Presuming he exits Saturday's race in good health, Little Mike is unlikely to have a second prep race prior to shipping to Chicago.

“You have no chance,” Vaccarezza said. “The Million is [five weeks] from Saturday.”

But just getting Saturday's Gulfstream race to go could be a challenge in itself.

“Listen, south Florida in July, it's always a concern,” Vaccarezza said when asked about worries the race might not fill. But, he added, he thinks Gulfstream management will recognize and welcome “the attraction of having Little Mike race this weekend,” and thus make an extra effort to ensure the race goes.

Vaccarezza said he planned to name Elvis Trujillo to ride, both because he was aboard him in Little Mike's last win and because Trujillo has recently been on the gelding for morning training. But the jockey commitment does not yet extend beyond Saturday's race, Vaccarezza added.

“Of course, I would like him to win. But after a 26-month layoff, if he just performs well [that would be considered] moving forward,” Vaccarezza said. “If he does well, we'll continue. But if he shows me any signs that he does not want to be competitive, I'll retire him. One thing I can assure you is I would never, never do anything to jeopardize his health and soundness.”