Charles Chu's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint hero and 'TDN Rising Star' Drefong (Gio Ponti) will be forced to miss the race, but the Bob Baffert barn will nevertheless be represented by a trio of runners in Monday's GI Malibu S. as he goes in search of a third win in the race since 2011.
Mor Spirit (Eskendereya) makes just his second start around one turn and first appearance since a 10th-place effort in the GI Kentucky Derby this past May. The Pennsylvania-bred, a Grade I winner at two, won this year's GIII Robert B. Lewis S. and had not been out of the exacta prior to finishing down the field in Louisville. With Gary Stevens recuperating from hip surgery, two-time Malibu winner Mike Smith jumps aboard. 'Rising Stars' Ten Blessings (Smart Strike), a son of 2008 GI La Brea S. victress and fellow Rising Star Indian Blessing (Indian Charlie); and Jazzy Times (Discreetly Mine) round out the Baffert trio. Jazzy Times and Mor Spirit breezed a half-mile in company in a bullet :46.20 Wednesday morning.
Drefong, who defeated Mind Your Biscuits (Posse) into third in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, was recently treated for a fever and Baffert ran out of time.
“He got a little temp last week so I had to treat him,” Baffert said. “He had worked very well for the race, but he's just going back to the track now.”
New York-bred Mind Your Biscuits will be having his ninth start of the season in the Malibu, and a productive campaign it has been. He ventured outside of restricted company for the first time and took out the GII Amsterdam S. at Saratoga, then was a running-on fifth to Drefong behind a farcical pace in the GI King's Bishop S. He was runner-up in the GIII Gallant Bob S. at Parx ahead of his hard-trying third in the Breeders' Cup.
Sharp Azteca (Freud) makes the cross-country trek for trainer Jorge Navarro in top form. Upset winner of the GIII Pat Day Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard May 7, he faltered in his next two, but bounced back in a big way last time, racing away to take the seven-furlong City of Laurel S. by better than five lengths at the Baltimore-area oval Nov. 19.
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