ARCADIA, Calif. – The decisive victory by Baeza in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby on Saturday at Parx Racing has elevated the 3-year-old to the short list of contenders for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic this fall at Del Mar.
Baeza, who earned a career-best 105 Beyer winning the Pennsylvania Derby by 2 1/4 lengths under jockey Hector Berrios, was scheduled to return to Santa Anita on Tuesday. If Baeza is up to it, trainer John Shirreffs will prepare him for the BC Classic.
“All the connections would like to run [in the BC Classic],” Shirreffs said Sunday morning at his Santa Anita office. “It’s going to depend on how Baeza is.”
Baeza, who began the year as a maiden, has handled his campaign well. The Pennsylvania Derby was his best race yet. “Numbers-wise, it was obviously,” Shirreffs said. He will wait until Baeza returns home and resumes training before he commits Baeza to the BC Classic.
“After a race, you have to see how well the horse recovers mentally, puts back on his weight, how much it takes out of him, all those things,” Shirreffs said.
California-based Baeza won’t have to ship for the BC Classic. He has done enough shipping for one season.
“This was his third trip across country, so he’s gotten to know the drill,” Shirreffs said. Baeza shipped from California to Kentucky and finished third in the Kentucky Derby, then went to Saratoga to finish third in the Belmont Stakes. He returned to California, then flew back to Saratoga to finish second in the Jim Dandy, then back to California, and then on to Parx.
The six-week gap between the Pennsylvania Derby and the BC Classic on Nov. 1 is perfect. “The timing’s fine, I just don’t want to make a snap judgment and then say, no, we can’t do it.”
Baeza has never raced on dirt at Del Mar, but he trained over the track as a 2-year-old and also this summer as a 3-year-old. As the season unfolded, Shirreffs witnessed the colt’s maturation, which he needed to win the Pennsylvania Derby.
“He kind of got squeezed back in the beginning, and then he was able to not lose contact with the bunch,” Shirreffs said. “Then he was able to make two little moves, he got himself in a better position, and he made a very long, sustained run.”
Baeza was late switching leads in the Pennsylvania Derby, but he finally did switch at the eighth pole. Better late than never. “For a long time, he wouldn’t even switch leads in the morning,” Shirreffs said.
Baeza is owned by Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stable and Grandview Equine. A sibling to Grade 1 winners Mage and Dornoch, Baeza has won two races and $1,503,500 from eight starts. Baeza is by McKinzie, who won the Pennsylvania Derby in 2018.
The list of BC Classic contenders includes early favorite Sovereignty, 2024 winner Sierra Leone, 2024 runner-up Fierceness, Mindframe, Journalism, Antiquarian, and Baeza.
No plans yet for Magnitude
Plans for Pennsylvania Derby runner-up Magnitude won't be finalized until after the horse returns to training, trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday.
Asmussen said Magnitude came out of the race in good order and was on his way to Churchill Downs on Sunday morning. He had been stabled at Saratoga for the last two months.
Magnitude showed a different dimension coming from off the pace to finish second, 2 1/4 lengths behind Baeza in the Pennsylvania Derby. His previous good races - wins in the Risen Star and Iowa Derby -- came when he was on the lead.
"I thought he ran a good race, not exactly the outcome we were looking for," said Asmussen, who finished second for the fifth time from six starters in the Pennsylvania Derby. "Nothing was given to him and he still ran very good."
Asmussen did say that plans call for Magnitude to race in 2026. He's hoping Magnitude can have a similar 4-year-old season that another horse of his who ran third in the Travers and second in the Pennsylvania Derby did a few years ago.
In 2016, Gun Runner was a well-beaten third in the Travers and then ran second in the Pennsylvania Derby. In 2017, as a 4-year-old, Gun Runner won four Grade 1 stakes and was named Horse of the Year.
"There's a lot of good races left in him," Asmussen said of Magnitude. "Which ones they are, to be determined."
Gun Runner ended his 3-year-old season by finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and winning the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill.
-- additional reporting by David Grening
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