by Jeff Lowe

Trainer Helen Pitts-Blasi pushed away playful bites and kicked herself on Sunday morning as she cooled out fiesty seven-year-old Einstein (Brz).

Einstein was full of himself after drilling four furlongs in :47.80 at Santa Anita Park, his final major preparation for the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on Saturday. Pitts-Blasi, his partner in the workout, was upset with herself for allowing him to work that fast.

“I almost fired myself,” Pitts-Blasi joked later. “It’s very hard to tell on this surface how fast you’ve gone. I didn’t think I’d gone that quick. He’s deceiving as much as the track is. He did it easily. I never moved on him. I was looking to just get a nice, easy breeze. … But he likes this track.”

Einstein already proved that with his victory in the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) on March 7. The Classic will be his first start since a second-place finish by a neck in the Pacific Classic Stakes (G1) on September 6 at Del Mar (video).

Pitts-Blasi ticked off examples of Einstein’s previous success with extended time between races, including wins in the 2008 Clark Handicap (G2) off a break of three months and 19 days and ’09 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes (G1) after 55 days away.

“He runs well fresh,” Pitts-Blasi said. “He’s seven years old and he’s danced every dance. He doesn’t have anything to prove. I wanted to him to come in a fresh horse. It’s the biggest race of his life. I didn’t want him to come into it a tired horse.”

Stronach Stables purchased Einstein privately from Midnight Cry Stables just before the Pacific Classic. Since he was not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup as a foal, the combined cost to nominate and enter him in the Classic is $350,000.

The price was one reason the five-time Grade 1 winner did not compete in the Breeders’ Cup last year and instead waited for the Clark. This time, as a seven-year-old, he will have a chance to equal Cardmania (1993 Breeders’ Cup Sprint [G1]), Elmhurst (’97 Breeders’ Cup Sprint), and Miesque’s Approval (2006 Breeders’ Cup Mile [G1]) as the oldest Breeders’ Cup winners.

“It’s a lot of money, but if anyone deserves the chance, he does,” Pitts-Blasi said.

Stronach scored with a Breeders’ Cup gamble in 2007, when he paid $180,000 to supplement Ginger Punch to the ‘07 Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1). She won the race and received the Eclipse Award as champion older female.

For video of Einstein at the barn at Santa Anita, click here .

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer