ARCADIA, Calif. – No one has tried Sovereignty more than Baeza. Few have come closer to beating Sovereignty than Baeza did when he finished just one length behind him in the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga in July.
Next Saturday, Baeza will take a fourth crack at Sovereignty in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar.
On a busy morning at Santa Anita, where at least 17 Breeders’ Cup pre-entrants put in timed workouts, Baeza went a fairly easy five furlongs in 1:02.03, per Daily Racing Form. Under regular rider Hector Berrios, Baeza went in splits of 13.16 seconds, 25.75, 37.77 and he galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.12 and seven-eighths in 1:28.75.
“I thought it was perfect, I was really happy with it,” John Shirreffs, Baeza’s trainer, said at his Santa Anita barn. “I thought Baeza started off slowly and he started to pick it up, pick it up, pick it up and inside the eighth pole he was really flying and galloped out really well.”
After finishing third to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, Baeza, kept closer to the pace in the Jim Dandy, and was beaten only a length by Sovereignty. While Sovereignty came back to dominate the Travers Stakes by 10 lengths, Baeza shipped to Parx where he was a dominant winner of the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby.
Shirreffs said he has seen the mental maturity one would hope to see in a 3-year-old who got his career started 11 months ago.
“When he went back to Saratoga for the Jim Dandy he was much better than he was when he went back for the Belmont, mentally,” Shirreffs said. “When he went to Pennsylvania, it was almost like when he went to the Jim Dandy, he was really, relaxed settled in really well.”
Baeza was one of four Classic runners to put in workouts Saturday morning at three locations.
Also working at Santa Anita was Nevada Beach, the Grade 1 Goodwood winner who track clockers timed for six furlongs in 1:12.20. Daily Racing Form timed Nevada Beach from the three-furlong pole to the wire in 35.93 seconds, with the rider having to shake the reins at him a few times nearing the wire. Nevada Beach went in company with the 4-year-old Winterfell, a horse who hasn’t raced since finishing fifth in the Malibu last Dec. 26.
“He’s sort of a lazy horse, he doesn’t like to practice,” Bob Baffert, trainer of Nevada Beach, said. “We got a lot of it, that’s all we needed.”
At Saratoga, defending Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone worked a half-mile in 48.74 seconds over the Oklahoma training track. Daily Racing Form clocker David Norton timed Sierra Leone’s first quarter in 24.70 seconds and had him galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.01 and six furlongs in 1:13.31. For the third straight week, Sierra Leone went in company with the 4-year-old maiden Duration.
Chad Brown, the trainer of Sierra Leone, termed the breeze “exceptional."
“He’s been working fabulously, I didn’t think there was any way to improve on his last couple of works, but he just took it up another little notch. It’s as good as I’ve ever seen him work.”
Brown’s other Classic entrant, Contrary Thinking, worked a half-mile in 49.77 seconds at Belmont Park. Brown said that work went fine. Brown said that Florent Geroux would ride Contrary Thinking.
Sierra Leone, Contrary Thinking, and the Todd Pletcher trio of Antiquarian, Fierceness, and Mindframe are all scheduled to ship from Newark, N.J. to California on Sunday. Baeza will van to Del Mar on Sunday.
Sovereignty, Journalism, and Forever Young are at Del Mar with workouts to come from all three over the next couple of mornings.