Fresh off a career season in 2009 that earned him an O’Brien Award as Canada’s Older Pacing Horse of the Year, Bigtime Ball is prepping for the 2010 stakes season, which could involve a little bit of travelling
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Racing week in and week out in the Open class on the WEG circuit, Bigtime Ball was a model of consistency as he put together a record reading 14-5-0 in 21 starts at age five.
Speed proved to be the gelding’s forte as he lowered the nation’s all-time record on a five-eighths mile track to 1:49 in the second leg of the Masters Series at Georgian Downs in the summer and later took his mark of 1:48.2 at Mohawk Racetrack. Bigtime Ball closed out his 2009 campaign with a victory in Woodbine Racetrack’s Gold Cup Invitational in October giving him nearly $500,000 in earnings on the year and over $1 million lifetime.
“The highlight of the year was winning the O’Brien Award,” trainer, owner and breeder Gord Irwin of Cobourg, Ont. told Trot Insider. “It was something I really never dreamt in my life that I would win.
“I just feel good that the horse won it. Paul [MacDonell] and I and [Roger] Mayotte, we all helped the horse and got him there, but the horse did it.”
Bigtime Ball has kept up his training since arriving at the Pinske family’s Southern Oaks Training Centre in Sorrento, Florida last November.
“If everything goes well, we will qualify him twice in Florida at Southern Oaks Training Centre and we should be coming home somewhere around April the 20th,” said the 71-year-old horseman, who has mapped out a stakes-filled season for his six-year-old campaigner.
Bigtime Ball will remain in Ontario for most of his 2010 season, but Irwin says he may take the gelded son of Presidential Ball-Keystone Trinidad on the road later in the year. Currently, Bigtime Ball is being pointed to the Molson Pace at Western Fair, the Masters Series at Georgian, the Des Smith at Rideau Carleton Raceway, the Canadian Pacing Derby at Mohawk, the Breeders Crown at Pocono Downs and the Gold Cup Invitational at Woodbine.
“I generally don’t like traveling but Paul MacDonell and I talked and we decided we would take him down to the Breeders Crown if everything goes well this year.
“Right now everything is excellent. At this time he’s right on top of his game. I think he’s even grown a bit and got a little bit stronger. He always enjoys his work, he’s just a real nice individual that way and up to today he’s doing everything real well.”