Bob Baffert

3rd-CD, 120K, Msw, 3yo/up, 7f, 1:43 p.m. After bringing just $125,000 as a yearling at Keeneland September in 2024, PRESIDE (Tiz the Law) impressed the partnership of Spendthrift Farm, St. Elias Stable and West Point Thoroughbreds enough at the 2025 OBS April Sale to inspire a $1.5-million bid after working in :10 flat. Out of a stakes-placed half-sister to Canadian champion female sprinter River Maid (Where's the Ring), the 9-2 morning-line shot debuts for trainer Steve Asmussen and enters off a solid gate drill May 31 (four furlongs in :47...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was suggested to trainer Brad Cox that Commandment (Into Mischief) was a forgotten horse coming into the 158th running of the $2-million GI Belmont Stakes. "Not with me," Cox said at his office on the Oklahoma Training Track. Then a pause and a smile. "But I know what you mean," he said. "I don't know if he is or not (forgotten). All I know is that he is doing well. I have liked his works since the Derby; I liked how he shipped up here...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When it's a big race day, you'll find Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. Saturday is a big race day at Saratoga Race Course. Seven graded stakes--six of them Grade Is worth $5.9 million. Of course, Baffert is going to be here. He doesn't have a horse in the $2-million GI Belmont Stakes, but he has an impressive trio--Nysos (Nyquist), Crude Velocity (Beau Liam) and Imagination (Into Mischief)--running on the undercard. Nysos and Crude Velocity are both 'TDN Rising Stars, presented by Hagyard.' "It's a big...

Many of the better 2-year-olds haven't gotten cranked up yet, but the 3- and 4-year-old maidens continue to put up nice performances.   5 - MISS HELLFIRE, SA, 5/30-4th, 6 furlongs (video) Beyer Speed Figure- 85 (f, 4, by Sir Prancelot (Ire)-Missilette, by Golden Missile) O/B-Bryan and David Willson (Cal). T-Mike Puype. J-Kazushi Kimura. This romping debut win is a career highlight as a partnership for owner/breeders David Willson and his grandson Bryan. David is a longtime breeder and Bryan joined him in 2014 in the purchase of dam Missilette....

It's just like Wayne Lukas used to tell him. "One of these days you're going to get smart," Lukas would say. "And you'll quit that. And come over to the Thoroughbred business." This was when Bill Childs was still in the Quarter Horse game, and Lukas had already made the switch that transformed our sport. "Well, you're right," Childs told Lukas. "I'd love to. But man, it just takes so much money to be able to withstand it." "Well," Lukas shrugged. "You'll figure it out." And here he is, all...

6th-SA, 65K, Msw, 3-5yo, f, 6f, 6:30 p.m. 2024 OBS April Sales topper MOONA LISA (Tiz the Law) makes her belated debut Sunday over two years after bringing $1.9 million from Michael Lund Peterson and trainer Bob Baffert. The now 4-year-old, one of two Baffert starters in the field, gets Juan Hernandez aboard and enters off a steady work tab including a two-back bullet from the gate May 17 (five furlongs in :59 1/5 {1/51}). TJCIS PPS

It was reported earlier in the week that Boyd Racing and By Talla Racing's Splendora (Audible) would not take her spot in the field for Saturday's GII Shawnee Stakes on Stephen Foster Preview Day at Churchill Downs. Ultimately--and to the surprise of most--she was given her chance by trainer Bob Baffert and the reigning GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner sat a pace-pressing trip, easily seeing out the 8 1/2-furlong trip to validate 6-5 favoritism. The Maryland-bred showed good pace from gate five, but was beaten to the...

With June around the corner, the graded stakes calendar heats back up as Churchill Downs hosts its Stephen Foster Preview on Saturday. The local prep for the June 28 running of the GI Stephen Foster Stakes, the GIII Blame Stakes is one of six higher-level races on the card and could be deemed as wide-open. Wathnan Racing's Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) has the class edge though. The 2025 winner of the G1 Dubai World Cup returned to Meydan back in late March, but was unable to duplicate the feat....

The June 6 GI Belmont Stakes has lost two potential starters as the trainers of Potente (Into Mischief) and Chip Honcho (Connect) have declared their horses out of the race. The news was first reported by the Daily Racing Form's David Grening. Trainer Steve Asmussen told Grening he is not sure where Chip Honcho will run next. Trained by Bob Baffert, Potente will run next in the GIII Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 7. Potente, winner of the GII San Felipe earlier this season, was last seen...

Capping a productive day for the team of Pegram, Watson and Weitman and trainer Bob Baffert, Desert Gate (Omaha Beach) powered away from his rivals with ease to score in the Texas Derby at Lone Star on Monday. The group was also represented by Usha (Tiz the Law), winner of the GIII Winning Colors Stakes at Churchill Downs on Monday. Pounded down to 1-5 favoritism while getting Lasix for the first time, Desert Gate broke sharply and put the screws to Vintage Cowboy (Essential Quality), who carved out an opening...

Despite being the sole Grade I winner in the field, Usha (Tiz the Law) entered Monday's GIII Winning Colors Stakes as the 2-1 second choice behind 8-5 choice Kapoor (Uncle Mo), victorious in her four most recent starts. While the latter was significantly compromised at the start and failed to show her best in her stakes debut, Usha muscled her way to the front in the early going of the six-furlong test and remained tough to the very end, hanging on to a narrow victory over the oncoming Zeitlos (Curlin)....

Horses long ago tutored Eoin Harty in the kind of coincidences that defy rational explanation, as we'll discover when reaching the story of Well Armed. But losing both parents inside a week, in February, was maybe not quite as bewildering as it may seem. As Harty says himself, after 66 happy years together, perhaps the reason his father followed his mother so quickly was not so much a heart attack, as a broken heart. As a fifth-generation trainer, Harty owed not just personal but professional formation to his Irish genes....