Hughes a class apart for Baffert in Best Pal

It’s still early in the season for two-year-olds, but Hughes demolished Saturday’s $150,000 Best Pal (G3) in the manner of a colt going places for Bob Baffert. The $675,000 son of leading sire Into Mischief is now 2-for-2 by a combined margin of 13 3/4 lengths.

Hughes was extending Baffert’s dominance in the Best Pal, giving the Hall of Famer his fifth straight win and 13th overall in this Del Mar feature for juveniles. Some of those winners are more significant than others, chief among them champion Lookin at Lucky (2009), and Hughes signaled that he could eventually belong in the more memorable category.

A six-length debut winner at Los Alamitos, Hughes was clashing with two impressive rivals in Kennyten and He Is No Lie in this first stakes attempt. The market implied that there might not be a great deal between them, with Hughes rated as the 3-2 favorite over the 8-5 Kennyten, and He Is No Lie at 2.30-1. 

Yet the disparity was much greater on the racetrack, as Hughes dismissed them with total authority. Gliding forward from post 3 with Juan Hernandez, the blinkered bay argued with Kennyten through an opening quarter in :22.92. An audacious first-time starter, You Want Some, split them to press the issue through a half in :45.99.

Hughes blithely put You Want Some away, and when Kennyten tried to re-engage leaving the far turn, he was caught flat-footed by the fresh burst of speed from the winner. Spurting clear at the top of the stretch, Hughes threw in a final furlong in :11.74 to finish six furlongs in 1:09.61.

His final time was the second-fastest since the Best Pal was shortened to six furlongs in 2018. Baffert’s 2023 hero, Prince of Monaco, owns the stakes record of 1:09.19. Prince of Monaco went on to win the Del Mar Futurity (G1), and in a limited sophomore season, he missed narrowly in both the Woody Stephens (G1) and H. Allen Jerkens (G1) at Saratoga.

Phone Booth rallied from last to head Kennyten for second, 7 3/4 lengths behind Hughes. He Is No Lie weakened to a distant fourth, but he was taken out of his game early by stumbling at the start. You Want Some retreated to last of the quintet after the scratch of Icanthelpmyself.

Hughes has earned $120,000 for his ownership consortium including Front Row Club, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Bashor Racing, Albaugh Family Stables, Robert E. Masterson, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan.

The Sept. 6 Del Mar Futurity is likely next for the exciting prospect. Bred by Breffni Farm in Kentucky, Hughes is out of the Union Rags mare K P Dreamin, who was third in the 2019 Chandelier (G1) and Starlet (G1).

Hughes’s granddam, Litigation, is by one of Baffert’s all-time greats, dual classic-winning Hall of Famer Point Given. She is a full sister to $2.9 million-earner Go Between, a turf/synthetic specialist who starred in the 2008 Pacific Classic (G1) during Del Mar’s Polytrack era. 

Later in the $201,000 Yellow Ribbon (G2), Hernandez completed a sweep of Saturday’s graded stakes by orchestrating a last-to-first victory aboard Warming. 

The 9-5 favorite shipping in for Graham Motion, the Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners runner collared pacesetter Princesa Moche in time. Warming negotiated 1 1/16 miles on the firm turf in 1:42.35 to record her third graded victory, following the 2025 Autumn Miss (G3) at Santa Anita and the May 16 Gallorette (G3) closer to home at Laurel.

“I rode this filly in a stakes at Santa Anita, and we won there,” Hernandez said, “so I knew what to expect today. She broke a step slow, so I saved all the ground I could. They were going slow up front, but that was OK for me. The stable told me she was doing good and to ride her with confidence. She has a really good turn of foot, and she showed it today.”

Princesa Moche, who got away with fractions of :24.12, :48.97, and 1:13.55, held the runner-up spot by a neck from Take a Breath. Next came Sweet Rebecca, Vincey Girl, Whiskey Decision, and Princess Attitude. Innovative was withdrawn. 

Warming, a well-named daughter of Global Campaign and the Unusual Heat mare Haute Style, sports a mark of 13-5-1-3, $473,050.