ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s always exciting when a champion 2-year-old returns for his first start at age 3, but Eclipse Award winner Citizen Bull is no walkover Saturday at Santa Anita.
There is one virtual certainty, however: Trainer Bob Baffert is likely to score his seventh straight victory in the one-mile, Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis. It helps to have the best horses, as well as the most horses, and Baffert starts three: Citizen Bull, maiden route winner Rodriguez, and maiden sprint winner Madaket Road.
“I hate to run them together like that, but we don’t have allowance races that will fill,” Baffert said. “They need to get some races into them, find out what they can handle, what they don’t want, what they do want.”
Baffert has won the Lewis 12 times. Over the past seven years, including Saturday, his runners have accounted for 16 of the 34 Lewis starters.
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The sleeper is Clock Tower, a grass horse trained by Wesley Ward who’s making his first start since Dec. 1, when he won the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes on turf at Del Mar. Maiden-claiming winner Valentines Candy has little chance but could influence the pace of the five-horse race.
The Lewis is race 4 on a four-stakes card. The Grade 2 Santa Monica for filly-mare sprinters, including Kopion and Richi, is race 3. A pair of Grade 3 turf miles are the Megahertz for fillies and mares, race 6, and the Thunder Road with Seal Team and El Potente, race 8.
Citizen Bull’s last race was three months ago in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
“He’s matured. I think he’s grown,” Baffert said. “He’s filled out. He’s a heavy horse; he’s stout. We gave him that little freshening, and now it’s the time for him to start running. He’s a big, strong horse.”
Baffert cautioned that Citizen Bull does not have to win first start back.
“At Del Mar, he needed a couple races to get ready,” Baffert said, referring to his debut win and third in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.
After two starts, Citizen Bull hit top form by wiring back-to-back Grade 1 routes.
“Citizen Bull, he’s got to be on the lead [or] forwardly placed,” Baffert said. “Rodriguez won that way. At the break, they’ll figure it out.”
Martin Garcia rides Citizen Bull from post 2, while Juan Hernandez rides Rodriguez from post 3. Based on the 101 Beyer Speed Figure posted by Rodriguez in his maiden win only a month ago, one could argue that he’s the most probable winner.
“He ran fast. He reminds me of his sire a little bit, Authentic,” Baffert said. “Can he repeat that? He ran a fast race, he did the two turns, and he did it easily. When he came back to the winner’s circle, he didn’t take a deep breath.”
Rodriguez, Citizen Bull, and Clock Tower are speed horses. The race could set up for stretch-out Madaket Road, runner-up in a Grade 3 and a maiden winner second out.
“I don’t think he’ll have a problem with two turns, just the way he’s been breezing,” Baffert said. “The pace is probably going to be pretty hot. He’ll be sitting back there.”
Frankie Dettori rides Madaket Road.
All three Baffert runners are owned by a partnership that includes SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables. Dianne Bashor is part owner of Madaket Road, while Stonestreet Stables is part owner of Citizen Bull and Rodriguez.
The Lewis, which offers Kentucky Derby qualifying points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale, is the first dirt route stakes of winter for Santa Anita 3-year-olds.
“March and April is when all the serious stuff happens,” Baffert said. “You don’t have a Derby horse until the last prep. It’s a long way off.”
Clock Tower could target the UAE Derby. Wesley Ward and assistant Blake Heap train the gelding for James and Fitriani Hay, who winter in Dubai. Following Clock Tower’s wire-to-wire DeMille victory, the plan was to shift to dirt at Santa Anita.
“I thought that this would be a good test for him, [knowing] Baffert would bring his top picks out there,” Ward said. “This way we would get a good feel if we would be competitive going over to Dubai.”
Clock Tower’s “numbers on grass don’t match up with Bob’s horse’s numbers on the dirt, but you know how rapidly these horses can improve from 2 to 3,” Ward added.
Gerardo Corrales rides Clock Tower, who has trained particularly well over the Santa Anita dirt. John Velazquez, Kent Desormeaux, and Mike Smith have all worked Clock Tower and have given Ward and Heap positive feedback.
“He’s gonna put it all [out] there, “Ward said. “And we’ll see if he’s good enough.”
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