Make It Big seals Florida freshman money title for Neolithic with 2nd stakes victory

With less than two weeks remaining in 2021, Neolithic all but wrapped up the title as Florida’s leading freshman sire by progeny earnings with the game victory last night of unbeaten Make It Big in the $400,000 Remington Springboard Mile.

Red Oak Farm’s $120,000 OBS April purchase, now 3-for-3 with two stakes victories, had a big edge heading into the mile race – Saffie Joseph Jr., the country’s 10th leading trainer, and New York jockey Jose Ortiz, the fourth leading rider.

Make It Big broke in mid-pack from the No. 2 post, and Ortiz had him well-placed on the inside racing down the backstretch, about three lengths behind the pace-setters. He swung his colt off the rail and came five wide nearing the top of the stretch, and Make It Big out-gamed Osbourne to the wire by one-half length to collect the $240,000 winner’s share for the Brunetti family, owners of Red Oak Farm and Hialeah Park.

While Ortiz was winning his 250th race this year, Make It Big boosted his earnings to $303,828, and Neolithic’s first-crop progeny earnings soared to an unbeatable $632,209.