The authors studied the low-field magnetoresistance of Sm1-xSrxMnO3 (x=0.45) which was sintered at different elevated temperatures followed by fast cooling (thermal quenching). Near the metal insulator transition the magnetoresistance is dramatically enhanced while the magnitude and width of the resistive peak are significantly reduced by increasing the sintering/quenching temperature, approaching the values observed in a single crystal of the same composition. They attribute these effects to an increase of the grain size in the system. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.