ARCADIA — Bob Baffert’s unparalleled experience in determining Kentucky Derby potential tells Hall of Fame trainer that no matter what a young horse shows in the first race, it will reveal even more in the second race. taught to.
“The time will tell,” Baffert said inside the winner’s circle at Santa Anita.
After finishing 3-year-old Burns’ second race, Baffert realized he had another potential star in his stable.
Jockeys Burns and Juan Hernandez dominated a small but solid field Saturday in the $200,000 Grade II San Vicente Stakes, exchanging lead horse McKinzie Street in the turn heading home and setting fast times on the road for five. He won by a horse and a half.
Another horse Baffert trained in the contest, Romanesque, finished second. Bullard, the morning’s favorite and a close second choice among bettors, dropped another half a length back to third place. Smooth Crewin finished in 4th place and McKinzie Street finished in last place.
Burns paid $4 for a winning bet of $2. His seven furlong time was 1 minute 22.15 seconds, his best time in six years at San Vicente.
Baffert ran 1-2 in the afternoon’s other stakes, with Ritchie ($8) and jockey Kazushi Kimura the odds-on favorites Pleasant and Hernandez in the $100,000 Las Flores Stakes for filly sprinters. I went on a train trip to make an upset. .
Baffert finished the day with four wins and Hernandez with five. Other total wins came when 4-year-old Mira Hamady ($6.80) shook off Eagles Flight with a pocket-money-level mile and 3-year-old Rodriguez ($3) vaulted on her maiden horse. miles.
But Burns was the star of the day.
As the son of leading American stallion Into Mischief (and mare All American Dream), who sold for $3.2 million to owner Amr Zedan at the Saratoga yearling auction, Burns entered the 11-year-old with high expectations. He made his horse racing debut on April 27th at Churchill Downs in Kentucky.
He ran to the green under jockey Martin Garcia and had to fight to win by a head over the Innovators in the five-and-a-half furlong race, but barely answered them. There was nothing wrong with winning, but Barnes had room for improvement.
He grew up with a big jump from maiden to major stakes class. That’s thanks to the longer distances, nearly three months of training at Santa Anita, and the maturity a horse this age can gain in a short seven-week period.
“He’s grown a lot mentally so far,” Baffert said. “That’s what you want to see.”
Barnes’ early success may make a little more sense near Barn 5 at Santa Anita, as Barnes is named after Baffert’s top assistant trainer, Jimmy Barnes.
“They surprised me (with the name) and I was honored,” Burns said after Saturday’s race. “I was a little nervous, but things are going well so far.”
Jockey Burns started from post two and pressured McKinzie Street from the outside with quarter-mile fractions of 22.65 seconds and 45.10 seconds, a comfortable pace for a horse like this. The winner took control early on.
“He was aggressive on the backside, but he’s still learning how to run,” Hernandez said. “I like him because around the corner pole he got off the reins and was looking around a little bit, but I corrected him and he came back to me. He’s what he is today. I was really surprised at how it turned out.”
This was Hernandez’s fourth straight win at San Vicente, including the past two years with Baffert-trained Havname Meltdown and Moot.
It was Baffert’s 14th San Vicente victory in 29 years. That first horse appeared in Silver Charm in 1997, a step toward Silver Charm, which gave Baffert his first of seven Kentucky Derby wins.
Multiple Derby threats loom for Baffert after his suspension from Churchill Downs is lifted for the first time in three years. The most proven are Citizen Bull, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and almost certain two-year-old champion, and Gaming, winner of the Del Mar Futurity.
Testing for 3-year-old horses at Santa Anita continues with the Robert B. Lewis Stakes on February 1st, the San Felipe on March 1st and the Santa Anita Derby on April 5th.
Barnes’ second start spoke volumes, but his third one could reveal even more.
