Himika<\/a><\/b> is installed as the 7-5 program favorite for Baffert. Himika is by Curlin out of the Into Mischief mare Motivated Seller, who was a stakes-placed winner for trainer Chad Brown. Himika was purchased by owner Baoma Corp. for $900,000 at the OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training.\n<\/p>\n\nHimika has worked five times since May 9 for her unveiling, including back-to-back gate drills most recently. On Saturday, Himika signaled her readiness with a swift four-furlong work from the gate in 46.80 seconds. She drew the rail and will have Juan Hernandez aboard.\n<\/p>\n
\nBaffert will also saddle Bottle of Rouge, the 2-1 second choice. Owned by Natalie Baffert, Baffert\u2019s wife, Bottle of Rouge is by Vino Rosso out of the Bluegrass Cat mare Blues Corner. A $100,000 auction buy as a yearling. Bottle of Rouge will have Kazushi Kimura up.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe main competitor to the Baffert duo is 3-1 third-choice Stuffy Mist, who has been working fast for trainer Victor Garcia. By Maximum Mischief, Stuffy Misty fired a bullet on May 25 when drilling four furlongs from the gate in 46.60 seconds. She came back a week later and worked five furlongs in 59.60 seconds. Jockey Hector Berrios has the call on Stuffy Mist.\n<\/p>\n
\n In Friday\u2019s second race, colt Desert Gate is the 6-5 program favorite for Baffert. By Omaha Beach out of graded-stakes-placed Theogony, by Curlin, Desert Gate was a $260,000 auction buy earlier this year at the OBS March Sale by owners Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman. He has worked seven times since April 18 and also will have Hernandez aboard for his debut.\n<\/p>\n
\n Looming as Desert Gate\u2019s main threat is Acknowledgemeplz, one of two runners in the field trained by Doug O\u2019Neill. Installed as the 2-1 second choice on the morning line, Acknowledgemeplz is a Florida-bred by Bucchero out of the Yes It\u2019s True mare Dixieland Band. He was purchased for $75,000 at the OBS March Sale by owners Purple Rein Racing and Mark. D. Davis. Acknowledgemeplz has worked eight time since April 20 for his debut. He\u2019ll have Antonio Fresu aboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Jon Putman \/ Eclipse Sportswire Santa Anita’s Thursday and Friday programs each have a race for open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-179888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114673574418804511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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