Russian trainer hopes Big Bazinga helps realize Derby dream

Katerina Vassilieva has a name that sounds like a Russian figure skater. And she indeed is from Russia and learned how to skate on frozen ponds before getting formal training after her family emigrated to Toronto when she was 7.

"My mom signed me up for figure-skating lessons and I loved that," she said. "But then we moved to a different city and my mom said, 'You can't have figure-skating lessons anymore.' I said, 'OK, I want horseback-riding lessons', which turned out to be even more expensive and time-consuming for my poor mother. But that's the road to where I am now."

Today Vassilieva trains Thoroughbred horses, and she's hoping Big Bazinga takes her on the ride of her life in Saturday's Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Spiral Stakes. The winner and quite possibly runner-up of Turfway Park's Grade III, $550,000 race will have enough points to ensure a spot in the May 3 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

"It's huge, like a dream come true for this to happen this early in my career," said the 31-year-old Vassilieva, who began training in 2011. "It would make my career if this horse did go to the Derby, as well as make my owners very happy. And that's always my No. 1 goal."

If there was any question of her owner's goal, he and his family race in the name of Derby Dreamers Racing. Vassilieva demurs from identifying the owner, saying he wants to stay out of the limelight because of the nature of his job in the investment world.

"They dream about having a Derby horse," said Vassilieva, whose 16-horse stable winters in Florida before returning to Woodbine in Toronto. "He goes to the Keeneland sale every year and buys a 2-year-old colt with the Derby in mind, a two-turn dirt horse, that sort of pedigree. Big Bazinga is the closest to a Derby horse we've gotten."

Woodbine, like Turfway, has a Polytrack surface. Big Bazinga, a $25,000 Keeneland yearling purchase, rallied from last to win his debut last September at 31-1 odds. In his next start he led until the final strides of the Grade III Grey Stakes, losing by a half-length.

In his most recent start, Big Bazinga closed from well back in a troubled trip before finishing second by a neck in a Gulfstream grass allowance under Luis Contreras. However, his two starts on dirt were not pretty on paper: seventh in the Delta Jackpot and 11th in Gulfstream's Holy Bull.

Vassilieva said the son of 2006 Derby runner-up Bluegrass Cat was stuck down on the inside in his first start on dirt and on a small track in the Jackpot.

"The Holy Bull is a bit of a head-scratcher," she said in a phone interview. "We think he may have strained his back that day. It was such a dull effort, you can't even say it was dirt or not. Even his whole demeanor going into that race he was really quiet. Usually he's on his toes, kind of excited to be running."

At Turfway, Vassilieva is doubling as Big Bazinga's exercise rider.

"I always loved horses when I was little," said the trainer, who holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Toronto and a master of science from McMaster University. "I always thought they were beautiful and intelligent. I stumbled on the racetrack one summer. I was trying to make money for tuition for university. I knew some people who worked on the track and they said, 'You know something about horses, you could probably get a job there.' I started hot-walking and grooming, learning the ropes. I was just hooked, hooked on the excitement of the sport and that I could make money off doing what I loved.

"The next year I came back as an exercise rider, then as an assistant and it kind of snowballed from there. Each year I kept saying, 'OK, after this year I'm done.' But I loved it so much I kept coming back."

Vassilieva worked as an exercise rider for prominent Canadian trainer Reade Baker, who runs Asserting Bear in the Spiral.

"She was a good worker; bright girl," he said. "What she lacks in experience she makes up for in enthusiasm."

Mark Casse, who maintains divisions at Woodbine and Churchill Downs much of the year, calls Vassilieva a "really, really good horsewoman."

"Whenever she has a horse in the race, I always figure she's going to have one of the horses to beat," said Casse, who is running Coastline in the 1 1/8-mile Spiral. "I don't think you can give any trainer a better compliment than that."

Big Bazinga is named for the TV show The Big Bang Theory, whose character Sheldon Cooper is always saying "Bazinga" when he tells a joke.

"The name Bazinga was already taken," Vassilieva said. "That's why they added the Big."

Now she's hoping for a big bang at Turfway.