Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Baffert duo in Awesome Again
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bob Baffert already has Arrogate, Collected, and West Coast on his list of potential starters for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Del Mar, and he’ll be looking to add to that roster Saturday at Santa Anita when he sends out both Cupid and Mubtaahij in the Awesome Again Stakes, the last of five Grade 1, $300,000 races on the blockbuster, 11-race card.
The Awesome Again, at 1 1/8 miles, offers a fees-paid berth in the $6 million Classic through the Win and You’re In program, and while both Cupid and Mubtaahij have potential designs on that race, there are others in this Awesome Again using it as a means to a different end.
Midnight Storm, for instance, is being pointed to the either the Breeders’ Cup Mile on turf – a race in which he finished third last year – or the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, while horses like Breaking Lucky, Curlin Rules, and Donworth also seem more likely to turn back to the Dirt Mile than try to stretch out to 1 1/4 miles for the Classic, especially with Baffert’s three-headed monster, and Gun Runner, pointing to that race.
Dortmund, winner of the 2015 Santa Anita Derby, was potentially to use the Awesome Again as a comeback race for a fall campaign. But on Thursday, trainer Art Sherman said Dortmund would scratch, leaving a field of seven. The Awesome Again was scheduled to be Dortmund’s first race since April 1. He was announced as retired after that race – which marked his sixth straight loss – but this summer was put back in training. He is owned by Kaleem Shah.
“I got to talking it over with Kaleem, and we decided it’s an awful lot to ask him to go a mile and an eighth after a long layoff,” Sherman said. “I’d like to get an easier spot to come back in.”
Sherman said Dortmund would be pointed to the $70,000 Comma to the Top Stakes at one mile Oct. 28 at Santa Anita. The Comma to the Top was formerly known as the Big Bear, which Dortmund won in 2015.
Dortmund has run well fresh in the past, and his absence will be of benefit to Midnight Storm, whose connections are desirous of seeing him win a Grade 1 race on dirt. There was even consideration given to going to Belmont Park next week to run Midnight Storm in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, but trainer Phil D’Amato on Thursday said Midnight Storm would remain home.
Midnight Storm comes off a fourth-place finish in the Del Mar Mile on turf. He is winless in his last four starts. He had a different rider for his last three races, and that will go to four riders in four races with Tyler Baze taking over Saturday.
Rafael Bejarano, who had ridden Midnight Storm in seven of his last 10 races, is on Cupid, who has won both his starts this year under Bejarano since returning from an eight-month layoff, his victories coming in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita and the Brubaker at Del Mar.
Mubtaahij brings international intrigue to the race. Although he is winless in 10 starts since the 2015 United Arab Emirates Derby, the globetrotter finished a head behind the victorious Shaman Ghost in last year’s Woodward at Saratoga and was a respectable fourth in this year’s Dubai World Cup behind Arrogate, Gun Runner, and Neolithic. This will be his first start for Baffert.
“He’ll come running late,” Baffert said.
Curlin Rules finished just three-quarters of a length behind Cupid in the one-mile Brubaker on Aug. 23. He has improved in his last few starts, which coincided with a move back to dirt and the addition of blinkers.
“If you like Cupid, you have to like him. He ran well against him last time,” said John Sadler, who trains Curlin Rules. “He came back on just 18 days’ rest last time. This is better spacing.”
Breaking Lucky, third to Gun Runner in the Whitney and Stephen Foster Handicap in his last two starts, tries for the first time on the West Coast in an attempt to end an eight-race losing streak that includes an eighth-place finish in the Pegasus World Cup in January.
Donworth shortens up and adds blinkers after finishing last of seven in the Pacific Classic last time.
Win the Space was last of five in the Brubaker when making his first start in 9 1/2 months. He was third in last year’s Awesome Again behind California Chrome and Dortmund.
The Awesome Again goes as race 10 on an 11-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific. The four Grade 1 races preceding it all offer berths in Breeders’ Cup races, beginning with the Zenyatta (a Win and You’re In qualifier for the BC Distaff), followed by the Chandelier (Juvenile Fillies), FrontRunner (Juvenile), and Rodeo Drive (Filly and Mare Turf).