So Big Is Better with Jockey Kelsey Purcell winning at Arapahoe Park
So Big Is Better is nine this year, but nobody has told the big, grey son of leading Arabian racing sire, Burning Sand that it’s time to hang up his racing plates. Now in his seventh season, “So Big” had his first racing success as a four-year-old at Los Alamitos in California. There he won his second race and set his precedent for a long and consistent career on the track. In fact, his 2012 season was nearly the equal of his two best seasons in 2008 and 2009. So Big Is Better has raced at most of America’s Arabian venues. With 46 races, 20 wins and 10 seconds, he’s had a vibrant sporting life with LTE of $215,490. The races listed in his resume include several stake wins, one in the Gr 2 Valour Farms Arabian Stakes last July, and a strong second place finish in the Gr 2 HH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup Stakes just this last March in Texas.
As a son of Arabian Racing’s top sire out of a daughter of the great Arabian race horse and sire, ZT Ali Baba, So Big Is Better also has a bona fide license to be a good sire in the industry. He is a sound, strong, good-minded runner with the added, always welcome bonus of enormous heart. He’s a fierce competitor, as evidenced by his long, consistent racing record. Riding “So Big” in the upcoming 2013 UAE Presidential Cup at Churchill Downs on June 15th is a jockey with the same kind of “grit” that has colored So Big Is Better’s racing reviews. Kelsey Purcell has galloped and raced all breeds at the tracks and worked for some of the world’s top Thoroughbred trainers. Even better, for owner-trainer Mark Powell, Kelsey immediately “hit it off” with So Big Is Better making the horse and the team even harder to beat. Purcell is a lady jockey and that could be an influence for the handsome grey stallion. “He likes her,” says Powell, “and it shows in his races and that’s good.”
“So Big Is Better has been around,” says Purcell. “He’s older, he loves his job and he shows up. For me, he is an easy horse to ride and he always finishes strong. He has a great heart and I look forward to the race on Saturday night.”
So Big Is Better has his first major foal crop on the ground this spring and will be standing at stud more actively during the next breeding seasons. For information contact Mark Powell, MKP Enterprises, (801) 638-4111, mkpenterprisesut@aol.com.
