Bob Baffert
George Bolton, Arthur Hoyeau, Barry Lipman and Mark Mathiesen's Nadal (Blame) broke slowly as the 6-5 favorite in his Santa Anita unveiling Sunday, but he had no trouble giving his foes a head start, and ultimately proved too much for them to handle en route to being named a 'TDN Rising Star'. A $65,000 KEESEP yearling turned $700,000 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream grad after a :10 flat breeze, the Bob Baffert pupil had been buzzed about for some time despite a setback over the summer, and finally showed what all the fuss...
Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 1st-SA, $55K, Msw, 3yo, f, 6 1/2f, 3:30 p.m. ET Trainer Bob Baffert unveils two more members of his extremely well-stocked stable in the form of a pair of pricey OBS acquisitions. Merneith (American Pharoah) was a $350,000 Fasig-Tipton November weanling turned $600,000 OBSMAR graduate after a :20 4/5 breeze in Ocala. Her dam Flattermewithroses (Flatter) became a stakes winner when breaking her maiden at 53-1 in the 2012 Voodoo Dancer S. over seven yielding turf furlongs at Belmont. Reem (Danza), a $74,000 Fasig-Tipton October...
1st-GP, $50K, Msw, 3yo, f, 5fT, 12:00 p.m. ET Debby Oxley's FEELING FUNNY (American Pharoah) was well meant when entered in a five-furlong turf test at the Hallandale oval Dec. 22, however, failed to get the job done after the race came off the turf and had to settle for third as the 6-5 favorite. The $875,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga grad has been training sharply at Palm Meadows for Mark Casse since then, including a four-furlong move there in a bullet :47.10 Jan. 5. Out of stakes winning Funny Feeling (Distorted...
The inaugural US$29.2-million Saudi Cup program, to be held at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in the capital of Riyadh Saturday, Feb. 29, has attracted 964 entries from connections of horses from all corners of the globe. The meeting's centerpiece is the $20-million Saudi Cup at 1800 meters on dirt and attracted over 140 nominations from 60 different trainers from four continents, representing 16 countries. The world's richest horse race has entries from Argentina, Bahrain, Japan, Korea, Poland and Turkey, but American runners figure to take all the beating. Midnight Bisou (Midnight...
The older filly and mare division could be sensational this year. Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lure) is coming off a stellar 4-year-old campaign and will be seen next battling the world's best horses in the Feb. 29 Saudi Cup. Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) is set to return to the races after a layoff of more than a year and will try to duplicate her 2018 form, when she was an Eclipse Award winner and the winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. And now you can add Jolie Olimpica (Brz) (Drosselmeyer) to...
In a matchup of three talented newly-turned-sophomore fillies from the Bob Baffert barn, it was the experience and the class of multiple Grade I winner Bast (Uncle Mo) that proved superior, as the 124-pound highweight sat off her stablemates and edged clear late to score an odds-on success in the GII Santa Ynez S. Sunday at Santa Anita. A debut second Aug. 11 at Del Mar, the $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga buy added blinkers and dominated the GI Del Mar Debutante S. by 8 3/4 lengths 20 days later. A narrow...
The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton So which 3-year-old ran the more impressive GI Kentucky Derby prep race last week? You're forgiven if you want to grade two of the three stakes as "incomplete" because they more or less equated to public workouts won by heavy favorites who had short fields at their mercy. But there were enough nuggets of intrigue to spark decent debate, even at this early stage of the season. Authentic Goes Green The 7 3/4-length beatdown administered by Authentic (Into Mischief) in Saturday's GIII Sham...
As the only member of the freshly minted 3-year-old crop--male or female--with three Grade I wins securely on her CV, Bast (Uncle Mo) is impossible to overlook in the GII Santa Ynez S., which is worth $200,000 and 10 points toward the GI Kentucky Oaks on the first Friday in May. A $500,000 purchase for Baoma Corp. at the FTSAUG sale, Bast was a close second in her sprinting debut at Del Mar Aug. 11, then blew the doors off the field to break her maiden in the Aug. 31...
A $350,000 Keeneland September yearling, Authentic (Into Mischief) is the latest to make the races from his dam, the Mr. Greeley mare Flawless. The May foal was anything but that in Saturday's GIII Sham S. at Santa Anita, but raw ability saw him run up the score to the tune of 7 3/4 very green-but-good lengths as the 6-5 favorite. His well-backed stablemate Azul Coast (Super Saver) finished best of the rest in the one-mile test, which offered points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby on a 10-4-2-1 scale....
Bob Baffert has two strong chances to win his sixth edition of the GIII Sham S. Saturday with Authentic (Into Mischief) and Azul Coast (Super Saver). A $350,000 KEESEP buy, Authentic graduated at first asking sprinting at Del Mar Nov. 9, earning an 87 Beyer Speed Figure in the process. His stablemate Azul Coast also donned cap and gown at first asking, albeit going a mile at Los Alamitos Dec. 8. The Richard Baltas-trained Taishan (Twirling Candy) boasts the second highest Beyer in the field, registering an 81 for his...
Brian Elmore, executive director of the Indiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, has become the first horsemen's group executive named an ambassador for Jockeys and Jeans, an all-volunteer group founded by former jockeys who have raised better than $1.2 million for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund over the past six years. Elmore is a dedicated supporter of Jockeys and Jeans fundraising efforts and has previously been recognized for his work with the Eddie Arcaro Award, presented by the National Jockeys Guild for his service to the industry and work for...
It was back in 1988 that John Sadler began his stake race winning spree at Del Mar, when the mild-mannered speedball Olympic Prospect took the then-$75,000 Bing Crosby H., prompting jockey Alex Solis afterwards to breathlessly exclaim, "I never rode a horse that fast in my life." When given this little factoid at his Del Mar barn one recent morning--a full 31 years after the event--Sadler assumed the look of someone who'd just been told that water wasn't wet. "I wouldn't think so--it's got to be before that," he said...