Think Big Sets Sights On First G1 In Fourstardave originally appeared on Paulick Report.

Godolphin’s Kentucky homebred Think Big will vie for his first top-level score in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 FanDuel Fourstardave, a one-mile inner turf test for older horses, at Saratoga Race Course. The Fourstardave offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile in November at Del Mar.

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Trained by Michael Stidham, the 4-year-old son of Twirling Candy began the year as a turf sprint specialist, but successfully stretched out to one-mile last out on July 5 with a one-length win in the local G3 Kelso. There, he showed great adaptability when able to replicate his turn-of-foot that he showed sprinting, with an added degree of difficulty when Donegal Momentum stumbled heading into the stretch and forced Think Big to steady under Jose Ortiz. Nevertheless, Think Big found his best stride again to rally past returning rival Intellect in the lane and earn the win in a final time of 1:32.81.

“He’s doing great. It was obviously a bit of a scary trip when the horse stumbled in front of him and almost went down,” Stidham said. “We had to alter course a bit and lose some momentum, but luckily he was able to regain his stride and he finished strong. It was something we were hoping he could do – have the turn-of-foot at a mile like he does going short, and he did have it. That’s what’s giving us confidence to go into here.”

Think Big’s impressive off-the-pace style led to narrow G2 wins this spring in Kentucky, taking the Shakertown in April at Keeneland and the Turf Sprint on May 3 at Churchill Downs and earning respective 101 and 100 Beyer Speed Figures for the efforts. He then endured an awkward start and finished an uncharacteristic seventh in the G1 Jaipur on June 8 here ahead of his Kelso coup.

“I’m hoping we can get in a comfortable position and have a similar finish where he comes running again,” Stidham said. “You don’t often see horses that have the same turn-of-foot sprinting as they do two turns, but he showed that, and that to me was the most impressive part of his race last time.

“His only race that he didn’t run as well was the Jaipur, where he got off bad and had no position down the backside on a track that was favoring speed that day,” Stidham added. “You draw a line through that and with a good break, hopefully we can get some position and finish strong again.”

Think Big, who holds a consistent 11-6-0-1 record with more than $800,000 in earnings, will exit post 4 [6-1ML] in rein to Luis Saez for the first time in the afternoon.

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jul 31, 2025, where it first appeared.