Bob Baffert’s stable will be back in the spotlight Saturday at Santa Anita, even though the Hall of Fame trainer himself will be back east with horses racing that day at Churchill Downs and the following weekend at Saratoga.
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Seismic Beauty, the 5-year-old mare returning from a Breeders’ Cup disappointment to seek a repeat victory in the Santa Margarita Stakes, will be Baffert’s first stakes starter at Santa Anita since April and would be his first winner at that level at the Arcadia track since March. That dry spell alone isn’t remarkable, because Baffert’s barn doesn’t target the turf and California-bred races that dominate Santa Anita’s late-season stakes calendar. But it comes after Baffert moved many of his best horses to Kentucky at the start of the Churchill meet.
In states where purses are enhanced by casino revenue, Baffert finds higher prize money and more certainty that the races listed in track condition books will draw enough entries to actually be carded.
“I’d rather be in California,” Baffert said Wednesday on the phone from Kentucky, “but when they’re ready to run, you have to have a spot to run them in.”
Spreading out his troops also allows Baffert to avoid running horses against each other as he has often done in California. The Baffert-trained 5-year-old mares Seismic Beauty and Splendora, who finished 1-2 in the 2025 Santa Margarita, both now are owned by Randy and Jenny Boyd of Tennessee. While Seismic Beauty stays home, Splendora is racing in Kentucky, and is a 6-5 favorite on the morning line for the Grade II, $300,000 Shawnee Stakes at Churchill on Saturday.
Also at Churchill on Saturday, Baffert has 4-year-olds Cornucopian and Madaket Road in the Grade III, $275,000 Aristides Stakes. They’re 5-2 and 9-2, respectively, against Bob Hess Jr.-trained Roll On Big Joe, a 9-5 favorite.
Seismic Beauty (Juan Hernandez riding) is 2-5 in the Grade II, $200,000 Santa Margarita, whose field of five includes Michael McCarthy’s Simply Joking (Emisael Jaramillo) and Aggie Ordonez’s Om N Joy (Kent Desormeaux). Baffert said she’s “doing great” since returning to training after trouble at the start led to her being eased to 11th place behind winner Scylla as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar.
Baffert has one victory and ranks 32nd in earnings among trainers at the April-to-June Santa Anita Hollywood Meet, after finishing second at the same meet a year ago. Meanwhile he has been winning stakes in Kentucky with Crude Velocity and Usha and in Texas with Desert Gate.
Baffert said he’ll have more of a California presence at the Del Mar meet that opens July 17.
“(We’ll have) mainly 2-year-olds, and we’ll have our older horses. We’ll have a horse for the Pacific Classic (Aug. 22),” Baffert said, insisting that “the hub is still California.”
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As for racing more out of state, Baffert said: “It’s tough (competition), but I just need somewhere I can run these quality horses.”
MORE AT SANTA ANITA
Sunday’s Grade III Triple Bend Stakes matches a familiar face, 2024 Santa Anita Derby winner Stronghold, against a fresh one, Chilean Grade I winner The Goat, in a five-horse field.
Stronghold (Antonio Fresu) won for the first time since the Santa Anita Derby by dead-heating with Bendoog in an allowance-level race at Oaklawn Park in April. Five-year-old The Goat (Emisael Jaramillo), a son of Baffert’s 2008 Del Mar Futurity and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Midshipman, makes his U.S. debut for trainer John Sadler after a long layoff.
BELMONT BUILDUP
The New York Racing Association lists 10 horses as “probable” for the June 6 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. The lineup will be set Monday.
Vitruvian Man, third behind So Happy and Potente in the Santa Anita Derby last time out, has joined the list. Antonio Rispoli will ride for trainer Doug O’Neill. They’ll be the only California representatives in the Belmont.
The rest of the prospective field: Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo, Derby runners Renegade, Ocelli, Chief Wallabee, Commandment and Emerging Market; Peter Pan Stakes winner Growth Equity, and Ottinho and Powershift. Ocelli, third in the Derby and fourth in the Preakness, would be the only Preakness participant in the Belmont, and the only horse in all three races.
Baffert is skipping the Belmont with Crude Velocity, who’ll run in the Grade I Woody Stephens Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga, and Potente, who’ll go in the Grade III Matt Winn on June 7 at Churchill.
Also expected to run for Baffert at Saratoga on Belmont weekend are the 3-year-old filly Explora in the Grade I Acorn on June 5, and Nysos and Imagination in the Grade I Met Mile (where they’ll meet Journalism) on June 6.
SANTA ANITA LEADERS
(Through Monday)
Jockeys / Wins
Armando Ayuso / 20
Antonio Fresu / 19
Juan Hernandez / 17
Emisael Jaramillo / 16
Kazushi Kimura / 14
Trainers / Wins
Phil D’Amato / 13
Jeff Mullins / 8
John Sadler / 8
Mark Glatt / 8
Michael McCarthy / 8
UPCOMING STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
• $200,000, Grade II Santa Margarita Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 1⅛ miles
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Sunday
• $100,000, Grade III Triple Bend Stakes, 3-year-olds and up, 7 furlongs