Morning-Line Favorite Litmus Test Will Be Scratched from the Southwest Stakes

Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 2:10 pm

By Bill Finley

Litmus Test at Los Alamitos — Heavily-favored Litmus Test and jockey Juan Hernandez win the Grade II $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity Saturday, December 13, 2025 at Los Alamitos Race Course, Cypress, CA, giving trainer Bob Baffert his ninth win in the race. Baffert's two other starters in the race, Blacksmith and Provenance, finished second and third, respectively, giving the barn a trifecta. Benoit Photo

Trainer Bob Baffert has confirmed that GII Los Alamitos Futurity winner Litmus Test (Nyquist) will be scratched from Friday's $1-million GIII Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park. Litmus Test was listed at 5-2 on the morning line.

“We're waiting for the San Felipe,” Baffert said via text. “Never intended to run him at Oaklawn.”

The GII San Felipe Stakes will be held at Santa Anita Mar. 7.

Baffert will still be represented by Buetane (Tiz the Law) in the Southwest. He is the 4-1 second choice, but could go off favored since Baffert has proved time and time again that he's very tough to beat when he ships to Oaklawn. He owns a 41-percent winning percentage at Oaklawn and has won 26 graded stakes there. He has won the Southwest six times.

The new morning-line favorite will be D'code (Speightstown), who is listed at 3-1 on the current line. He rocketed to an 8 1/4-length win in his 6 1/2-furlong debut, earning a Beyer figure of 99.