ARCADIA — Bob Baffert is back in the Santa Anita Derby with two big shots at a record-extending 10th win in the race.
The trainer entered Imagination and Wynstock, from among the four horses he had nominated, in the $750,000, Grade I event Saturday.
They’ll face six others, including Stronghold, returning to California after winning the Sunland Derby in New Mexico; E J Won the Cup, home after leading all the way in the Turf Paradise Derby in Phoenix; and Tapalo, second in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields in the Bay Area.
The full field, from the rail out: 1. Curlin’s Kaos, Diego Herrera; 2. Tapalo, Umberto Rispoli; 3. Stronghold, Antonio Fresu; 4. Imagination, Frankie Dettori; 5. Wynstock, Juan Hernandez; 6. Tessuto, Kazushi Kimura; 7. Mc Vay, Hector Berrios; 8. E J Won the Cup, Mike Smith.
Imagination and Wynstock have won at 1 1/16 miles and will try 1 1/8 for the first time. Imagination edged Baffert’s Wine Me Up in the Grade II San Felipe Stakes on March 3. Wynstock led virtually all the way in the Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 16 before going to Arkansas and finishing last on a muddy track in the Southwest Stakes on Feb. 3.
“I think the mile and an eighth separates them,” Baffert said of young horses.
Baffert had said he would enter Maymun, who’s undefeated in two starts and beat Imagination. But after seeing how the race was shaping up, Baffert said he’s “not sure he’s ready for a mile and an eighth.”
Baffert has won nine Santa Anita Derbies, more than twice as many as any other trainer. He missed the race in 2022 and 2023, when owners moved top 3-year-olds to other barns to keep them eligible for the Kentucky Derby. Churchill Downs announced a two-year suspension from the track for Baffert following Medina Spirit’s 2021 disqualification, for a medication violation, from what would have been Baffert’s seventh Kentucky Derby victory.
Churchill announced in July that it was extending Baffert’s ban through 2024, but this year owners have kept horses with him. As things stand now, they’re running in traditional Kentucky Derby steppingstones but not receiving Derby qualifying points.
Things could change.
On Wednesday, Amr Zedan, owner of Muth, Baffert’s Arkansas Derby winner, filed suit in Kentucky against Churchill Downs, seeking an injunction allowing him to enter his horse in the May 4 Kentucky Derby, arguing that the suspension extension is “spurious” and “illegal.”
Baffert issued a statement about the suit: “While I am not a plaintiff in the lawsuit by Zedan Racing Stables against Churchill Downs, I would like nothing more than for the horses I train to have an opportunity to run at Churchill Downs.”
Six horses in the Santa Anita Derby definitely are running for Kentucky Derby points, with 100 going to the winner, then 50, 25, 15 and 10.
Assuming that horses will need more than 40 points to get into the 20-horse Kentucky Derby field, Stronghold (who comes in with 25) and Mc Vay (19) probably must finish third or better Saturday, and Curlin’s Kaos (four) and others must finish second or better.
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It’s not inconceivable that no horses from the Santa Anita Derby will qualify for the Kentucky Derby, which would mark the first time since 1976 and only the fourth time since the Santa Anita Derby’s advent in 1935 that nobody ran in both races. In ’76, Bold Forbes started his 3-year-old season at Santa Anita before going to New York, and went on to win the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
The Derby will be run as the 10th of 12 races Saturday, with first post at noon.
Santa Anita added a card Thursday and extra races Friday, Saturday and Sunda, to make up for rainouts last weekend.
