Can Malicious Bounce Back?

Ranked as one of the top five sophomore pacing colts heading into the 2010 season, Malicious was on track for a smooth ride into the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup; however, his racing luck recently

took a turn and he will have to overcome a few obstacles to secure his place in Canada's richest harness race.

Purchased by trainer Dr. Ian Moore, R G McGroup Ltd. of Bathurst, NB and NHL legend Serge Savard of Saint-Bruno, QC for $45,000 at the Harrisburg sale as a yearling, Malicious developed into a $348,000 two-year-old winner. The son of Bettors Delight-Silky won eight of his 12 starts in his freshman year, which included a sweep of the Dream Maker Pacing Series, a Nassagaweya division and his eliminations for the Metro Pace and Governor’s Cup. He also grabbed cheques in the big money events; the Metro Pace (fourth), Governor’s Cup (third) and Breeders Crown (fifth).

The colt was ranked fifth at odds of 15-1 in Trot Magazine’s 2010 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.

After wintering in Florida, Malicious captured his Empire Breeders Classic elimination in 1:51.3 at Tioga Downs on May 23 and finished one length behind Dr Dreamy in the $217,250 final the following week, which went in 1:51.

In his North America Cup prep, the Burlington Stakes, the brown colt headed to the front of the field from the inside post position but was shuffled back to fifth by the third quarter and eventually faded to a disappointing 10th.

Moore told Trot Insider that he hasn’t been able to pinpoint what led to his disappointing performance in the Burlington, but noted that his colt trained extremely well this week.

“I can't find anything physically wrong with him unless I'm missing something. His blood's a little bit high indicating mild dehydration, but not high enough for him to be as poor as he was last week. I did change to an open bridle last week; that's all I can see. He trained super good on the Monday with the open bridle at Joe Stutzman's farm track. I guess it's going to cost me $8,000 [starting fee] to find out if he's better this week.

“I lightened up his workload quite a bit,” continued Moore. “I kind of got the impression that he's just tired and he's acting like a fatigued horse. He's been going since the first of December. I tried turning him out down in Florida, but we got a month into him and then he just kept walking back and forth digging a deep trench in the sand and he lost weight being turned out. I've never had that happen before. I had to start jogging him around the first of December, so if you total that up it's six months already. But even those two trucks to Tioga took a little bit out of him.

“We gave him a couple of days off in the paddock after the Burlington; he was running around and everything seems fine. I'm just going to jog him this week with no training. And I've actually lightened up his jogging, too. Normally we jog six miles a day and maybe more than that, so I've lightened that up a little bit, too.”

Another bump in the road that Malicious will have to overcome to get the chance to grab a piece of the $1.5 million jackpot in the June 26 final is his post assignment in his elimination this Saturday. Although Malicious drew into what is arguably the lightest elimination – the third and final elim (Race 8, post time 9:57 p.m.) – he also drew the outside Post 10, which could be a major obstacle for the colt considering he has done his best work while on the lead.

“I said to my partner Ron [McLellan] last week maybe he's a one-dimensional horse, but I hope not. He raced out of a hole in Tioga, but he didn't get racing room early enough to do him any good. Sears out-drove Miller, basically. He's raced out of a hole before, although I can't recall him ever winning out of a hole. Most of his wins he either had the lead or retook or something along those lines. We've only had three starts with him this year, so it's hard to make any definitive conclusion based on that.

“We came here with optimism, and I guess we're still optimistic but perhaps more cautiously than we were before now,” said Moore. “We have the 10-hole this week, but I knew that was going to happen. We had the rail last week, and I said I'd rather have that a week later than now because it's our turn for it. I guess you've got to play the card you're dealt. He's going to be there to race, and I've prepared him the best we can this week with some change. I like to stick with successes and adjust for failures, and in this case we're going to make some adjustments.”

To view the fields for the 2010 Pepsi North America Cup elims, click here.