Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
LOS ALAMITOS Baffert duo sharp in works for Rebel
CYPRESS, Calif. – Bob Baffert has been dieting. Not that he wanted to lose weight, but he said he’d lost five pounds in recent days from not eating while dealing with the stress of relocating horses from Santa Anita while still trying to make important races for a number of them.
Much of that tension melted away Sunday morning at Los Alamitos. Some omelet was about to get demolished. Baffert said he felt much better after getting in crucial works for, among others, his top Kentucky Derby prospects Game Winner and Improbable, who now are bound for the Rebel Stakes on Saturday at Oaklawn after sharp drills Sunday.
“With what has transpired over the last 72 hours, I feel a lot better now,” Baffert said after also putting the 3-year-old colt Mucho Gusto, 3-year-old filly Chasing Yesterday, and older horses Dabster and McKinzie through drills.
“Los Alamitos has been great. They got over here and everything went well.”
All those horses, plus numerous top-class horses from other barns – including the Simon Callaghan-trained 3-year-old filly Bellafina – were part of a group of horses who decamped to Los Alamitos during the temporary suspension of racing and training at Santa Anita over the weekend. All were due for works to keep them on schedule for upcoming races.
In the cases of Game Winner and Improbable, they had been scheduled to run in the Grade 2, $500,000 San Felipe Stakes on March 9 at Santa Anita. When that race was canceled, the Grade 2 Rebel became a priority.
Baffert said both colts would remain at Los Alamitos until they fly to Arkansas in coming days. They are among at least six horses from Southern California expected for the race, which Oaklawn announced last week would be split into two divisions worth $750,000 each if it attracts more than 20 entrants. If not, it is worth $1 million.
If it is split, Oaklawn management said, horses from the same trainer would be put in different divisions. If that happens, Improbable and Game Winner would not face one another. Both are unbeaten.
Los Alamitos’s track plays much quicker than Santa Anita’s and produced fast times throughout the morning Sunday.
Improbable, working solo, went five furlongs in 59.20 seconds while going easily under his regular rider, Drayden Van Dyke. He galloped out with enthusiasm, too. He won the Los Alamitos Futurity in his final start last year.
“Beautiful. He can’t pull him up,” Baffert remarked while watching Improbable continue down the backstretch. “He’s been cooped up all week. They really bounce over this track. He’s ready.”
Game Winner, working in company per usual, went later in the morning and was timed going five furlongs in 59.80 with Joe Talamo aboard. Joel Rosario will ride him in the Rebel.
“That was perfect, Joe,” Baffert told Talamo over the radio he uses to communicate with riders during workouts.
“He went nice, cruising around there,” Baffert said later.
Game Winner, last year’s champion 2-year-old male, will be making his first start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Prior to working Game Winner, Talamo was aboard Mucho Gusto, who zipped five furlongs in 57.80 while in company. Baffert said he would await the Sunland Derby on March 24.
McKinzie, who would have run in the Santa Anita Handicap had it been run March 9, stayed on course for his next start with a six-furlong work in 1:11.80. He could still run in the Big Cap, which has now been postponed until April 6, or he could go to the Dubai World Cup one week earlier.
“I’d rather stay home,” said Baffert, who has been cognizant of not wanting to ship McKinzie much, being as he’s a light-framed horse. But Baffert said he believed McKinzie had the ability to win the World Cup, so he was going to think it over in coming days.
Baffert is definitely sending Dabster to the World Cup. He worked six furlongs in 1:10.60.
Chasing Yesterday was officially credited with a fivefurlong move in a swift 57 seconds. She is expected to await the Santa Anita Oaks on April 6.
Bellafina, the ante-post favorite for the Santa Anita Oaks, worked five furlongs in 59.40 seconds under Flavien Prat.