There is more than a touch of the Jamie Vardys about Mick Appleby. Both were born in Yorkshire, both have a prolific strike-rate in their chosen professions, and in the same way that no profile of the Leicester forward was once complete without a nod to his non-league roots, Appleby is still familiar to many racing fans from his breakout seasons as the “king of the sand”.
By Sunday morning, however, he may have earned a new title: the king of the Grade One sprinters. Big Evs, who was Appleby’s first runner and first winner at the Breeders’ Cup when he took the Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita 12 months ago, is back in southern California for a crack at the Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Saturday night. And, quite remarkably, Appleby has found another lightning-fast juvenile, Big Mojo, to attempt a repeat win in the Juvenile Turf Sprint on Friday.
