Proven at a mile on dirt at Saratoga last month, the 5-year-old gelding Big Blue Line will have a radically different assignment on the other side of the country in Saturday’s Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at Santa Anita. For the third time in his career, Big Blue Line will start on grass. The $750,000 John Henry Turf Championship will be his stakes debut on the surface at a new distance of 1 1/4 miles. The trip with Big Blue Line from trainer William Walden’s base at Turfway Park in Kentucky to California is part of a lucrative experiment. Big Blue Line, who is by the Medaglia d’Oro stallion Atreides and a half-brother to the turf stakes-placed Bay Muzik, has won 4 of 20 starts. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. “Ten furlongs on grass does not seem out of the realm of possibility,” Walden said earlier this week. “His breeding suggests it, so we’ll take a shot. If he proves competitive, you winter the horse a little differently if he’ll be a staple in the marathon turf division.” Big Blue Line was claimed for $80,000 at Churchill Downs on June 29, the day he finished second in a dirt race at 1 1/16 miles. On Aug. 23, Big Blue Line closed from sixth of seven under jockey Flavien Prat to win an allowance race at a mile at Saratoga. Walden was left impressed with the way Big Blue Line rallied in the final furlong to win by a neck. “He had nowhere to go until the sixteenth pole,” Walden said. “Flavien has his feet in the dashboard like he was breezing the horse.” Walden is hopeful Big Blue Line can show the same stretch run on turf. “The punch he had was like you’d see a turf horse make,” he said. Big Blue Line was second in an allowance race on turf at Kentucky Downs in his debut on the surface in 2023 and eighth of ten in an allowance race at Churchill Downs on June 6 of this year, the race before he was claimed. “I toss the turf race at Churchill,” Walden said. “The course has been in such disarray in the last couple of years. There are number of horses that haven’t run their races on that turf course.” Big Blue Line was claimed by Elliott Logan on June 29, but was sold to a partnership that includes Adam Wachtel, Peter Deutsch, and Gary Barber before the win at Saratoga, Walden said. Big Blue Line is part of a field of 11 in the richest running of the John Henry Turf Championship. Luan Machado, the regular rider of the marathon dirt stakes winner Next, has the mount, his first day of racing at Santa Anita. “They want to take a shot at the big race,” Walden said of his clients. The John Henry Turf Championship, worth $200,000 in recent years, is one of three races at Santa Anita on Saturday with significantly higher purses in an effort to give the program a higher national profile. There are ontrack music and food promotions designed to lure a larger audience. Big Blue Line is the only shipper in the John Henry Turf Championship, a race that includes all six runners from the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 31 – Gold Phoenix, Dicey Mo Chara, Balnikhov, Rockemperor, Master Piece, and El Encinal. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.