{"id":233634,"date":"2025-07-03T03:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T03:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/233634\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T03:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T03:12:11","slug":"all-roads-lead-to-saratoga-baeza-to-start-in-jim-dandy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/233634\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;All Roads Lead To Saratoga&#8217;: Baeza To Start In Jim Dandy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/paulickreport.com\/news\/thoroughbred-racing\/all-roads-lead-to-saratoga-baeza-to-start-in-jim-dandy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:&#039;All Roads Lead To Saratoga&#039;: Baeza To Start In Jim Dandy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">&#8216;All Roads Lead To Saratoga&#8217;: Baeza To Start In Jim Dandy<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/paulickreport.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Paulick Report;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Paulick Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Though trainer John Shirreffs was slightly disappointed by Baeza&#8217;s third-place effort in the Belmont Stakes, he hasn&#8217;t lost faith in the son of McKinzie. Shirreffs told the Thoroughbred Daily News this week that Baeza will head back to Saratoga for the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes on July 26.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like all roads lead to Saratoga,\u201d Shirreffs told TDN. &#8220;I think he is as good as any 3-year-old in the country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just want him to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shirreffs isn&#8217;t sure who will ride Baeza in the Jim Dandy; Flavien Prat will stay in California to ride Nysos if he is entered in the G2 San Diego on the same date.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Baeza, the half-brother to 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage and 2024 Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch, has worked twice since returning to Southern California after the Belmont Stakes. His most recent breeze was a bullet half-mile in a flashy 46.40 seconds last Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Baeza graduated at third asking in a one-mile maiden special weight on Feb. 14 at Santa Anita. He followed with a three-quarter-length second on April 5 in the nine-furlong Santa Anita Derby (G1), which was won by eventual Preakness Stakes-winner Journalism.<\/p>\n<p>The colt ran a good third in the Run for the Roses, beaten 1 3\/4 lengths by Sovereignty, but Baeza was 6 1\/2 lengths askance of that rival in the Belmont Stakes five weeks later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were expecting him to run more like he did in the Kentucky Derby and maybe do a little bit better [in the Belmont],&#8221; Shirreffs said. &#8220;I really don&#8217;t know what led to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trainer Bill Mott has also indicated that Sovereignty could start in the Jim Dandy Stakes, potentially setting up an exciting rematch.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thoroughbreddailynews.com\/shirreffs-says-baeza-will-head-east-for-jim-dandy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This story was originally reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/paulickreport.com\/news\/thoroughbred-racing\/all-roads-lead-to-saratoga-baeza-to-start-in-jim-dandy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Paulick Report;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Paulick Report<\/a> on Jul 2, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8216;All Roads Lead To Saratoga&#8217;: Baeza To Start In Jim Dandy originally appeared on Paulick Report. Though trainer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[91576,32580,91577,91575,91578,32578,1071,79,91574,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-233634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-baeza","9":"tag-belmont-stakes","10":"tag-jim-dandy","11":"tag-jim-dandy-stakes","12":"tag-john-shirreffs","13":"tag-kentucky-derby","14":"tag-racing","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-thoroughbred-daily-news","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114787119616561159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233634","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=233634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}