The stakes-winning sprinter Roll On Big Joe was deliberately held out of Saturday’s San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita in favor of a stakes in Arkansas later this spring, trainer Bob Hess, Jr. said. Hess wrote in a text message on Wednesday that Roll On Big Joe is scheduled to have his next start in the $200,000 Lake Hamilton Stakes at six furlongs at Oaklawn Park on May 2. Roll On Big Joe is unbeaten in two starts this year at Santa Anita – an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 3, and a four-length win in the Grade 3 Palos Verdes Stakes at six furlongs on Feb. 15. :: Santa Anita Clocker Reports are available every race day. Access now. The $100,000 Palos Verdes Stakes was Roll On Big Joe’s first stakes win. Last September, Roll On Big Joe finished a well-beaten second in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship behind Straight No Chaser, the champion sprinter of 2024. Hess said the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs at Del Mar on July 26 is a long-range goal. The winner of the $400,000 Bing Crosby Stakes earns a fees-paid berth the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1. “We’re trying to work back from the Bing Crosby,” Hess said last weekend of Roll On Big Joe’s schedule. “I don’t want to run him beyond six furlongs.” The $100,000 San Carlos Stakes is run at seven furlongs. The race drew a field of five – For All Mankind, Fort Bragg, Pilot Commander, Spirit of Makena, and Vlahos. After the Palos Verdes, Hess mentioned the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint, a $500,000 race at six furlongs at Oaklawn on April 12 as a goal, but later changed his mind. “I backed off a bit after” the Palos Verdes, he said. On Monday, Roll On Big Joe had his second workout of March, going a half-mile in 51.40 seconds on Santa Anita’s infield training track. Hess said the slow workout was “by design.” Roll On Big Joe, a 5-year-old gelding by the Malibu Moon stallion Prospective, has won 5 of 15 starts and earned $298,580 for the partnership of Rancho Temescal, White Fence LLC, and Richard Hale, Jr. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.