Baffert enters four in San Pasqual
Two months out from the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert already has stable star Game On Dude penciled in for the prestigious 1 1/4-mile test. While that one awaits the Grade 2 San Antonio on February 3, several of his stablemates will try to prove their Big 'Cap credentials in Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 San Pasqual over 1 1/16 miles. The most accomplished of Baffert's four starters is Coil, whose Grade 1 wins include the 2011 Haskell Invitational and the 2012 Santa Anita Sprint Championship. Coil completed last season on a slight downturn, finishing seventh over a speed-friendly track in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint and third behind Stay Thirsty and Groupie Doll in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile. Following the San Pasqual, Coil will enter stud duty at Magali Farms near Santa Ynez, California. Jaycito is winless in stakes company since taking the Grade 1 Norfolk in October 2010, but has posted two solid allowance wins over the past six months, including a 2 1/4-length decision at Hollywood Park December 1. Bank the Eight, a six-year-old who has raced only 11 times, was a dynamite 5 3/4-length allowance winner at Hollywood two back, but has been beaten soundly in two other starts for Baffert following a 15-month layoff. The return to dirt might help the former Pimlico stakes winner. Baffert will also send out the speedy Hoorayforhollywood, a multiple stakes-placed son of Storm Cat who was most recently third in the Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Mile at Hoosier Park in October. |
Also expected to show early foot in the San Pasqual is Ultimate Eagle, a blowout winner of last year's Grade 2 Strub who later faltered as the favorite in the Big 'Cap. The Grade 1 turf winner returned from a layoff of more than eight months in the November 23 Grade 2 Citation Handicap, where he finished a solid second to Data Link.
Others of note in the San Pasqual are multiple Grade 2 veteran Tres Borrachos, the 2012 San Pasqual runner-up who was most recently second to Jaycito in the aforementioned Hollywood allowance, and multiple stakes winner John Scott, a last-out fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile after a troubled trip.