CYPRESS \u2014 Bob Baffert\u2019s 3-year-olds this spring didn\u2019t meet the super-high standards the trainer of two Triple Crown winners has established for his barn, settling for a 15th-place finish by Citizen Bull in the Kentucky Derby and fourths by Goal Oriented in the Preakness and Rodriguez in the Belmont Stakes.<\/p>\n
But the enviable depth of Baffert\u2019s sophomore class makes a strong summer and fall a possibility.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Nevada Beach became a horse to watch for the near future when he and jockey Juan Hernandez ran away with the $100,000 Los Alamitos Derby, passing stablemate Varney in the stretch and going on to win by 4\u00bc lengths in fast time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was going to win a derby,\u201d Baffert joked. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know which one.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the ninth year in a row that a Baffert-trained horse won the Los Alamitos Derby and the 15th time overall, dating back to 2000 when it was the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park. It\u2019s the fourth time in six years that Baffert horses went 1-2.<\/p>\n
The 1:47.59 clocking for 1\u215b miles makes this the quickest Los Al Derby since Baffert\u2019s Gimme Da Lute won in 1:47.09 in 2015.<\/p>\n
A more important comparison going forward might be West Coast, Baffert\u2019s 2017 Los Al Derby winner, who followed up with a front-running upset in the Grade I Travers Stakes at Saratoga. Baffert said he\u2019s looking at the 1\u00bc-mile Travers on Aug. 23 at Saratoga for Nevada Beach\u2019s next start, a class jump to face the likes of Sovereignty and Journalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know he can get more distance, because he was just getting going there at the end,\u201d Baffert said.<\/p>\n
Hernandez said Nevada Beach, a son of 2019 3-year-old star Omaha Beach, seemed to like the Los Alamitos track better than the Santa Anita surface.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s getting better and better. I had to chase after him a little bit over at Santa Anita, but he was aggressive today in a good way,\u201d Hernandez said.<\/p>\n
Nevada Beach paid $2.80 in winning a race reduced to four horses when Baffert scratched Tiz Secure.<\/p>\n
The maiden Rank ran a distant third, and It\u2019s a Factor was far back.<\/p>\n
Nevada Beach, who ran second to Baffert\u2019s Gaming in the 1 1\/16-mile Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita in his second career start, became the fourth different Baffert 3-year-old to win at the stakes level at Santa Anita and Los Al in \u201925, joining Gaming, Citizen Bull and Barnes, and the fifth nationally, including Rodriguez in New York\u2019s Wood Memorial.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in that list could be the colt who makes Baffert\u2019s year.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Los Alamitos\u2019 first-ever pick-five carryover, $114,292, drew track-record new money, $860,345, in the sequence on races 1-5 Saturday. It paid $633 for 50 cents, with no winner over 4-1.<\/p>\n
\u2022 California trainers had mixed results at Churchill Downs. Bob Hess Jr.-trained Roll On Big Joe ($11.90) and jockey Julien Leparoux, and Mark Glatt\u2019s Dr. Venkman and Antonio Fresu, ran 1-2 in the Grade III Kelly\u2019s Landing sprint. Glatt\u2019s Mi Hermano Ramon and Fresu faded to fifth behind Brilliant Berti in the Wise Dan on turf, and Glatt\u2019s Freedom\u2019s Not Free and Fresu held third to Minaret Station in the American Derby on grass. The Churchill card featured Mindframe defeating Sierra Leone in the Stephen Foster, and Thorpedo Anna snapping back into form to win the Fleur de Lis.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kopion, Sweet Azteca and Richi are among 14 fillies and mares nominated for the Great Lady M. Stakes on Saturday, July 5, next-to-last day of the Los Alamitos meet.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: June 28, 2025 at 6:58 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CYPRESS \u2014 Bob Baffert\u2019s 3-year-olds this spring didn\u2019t meet the super-high standards the trainer of two Triple Crown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[288,1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-222844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-horse-racing","9":"tag-racing","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114764273641557379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222844","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=222844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}