2019 Eclipse Awards: Bast

It’s not often you see a horse whose three career victories all came in Grade 1 races.

But that’s the remarkable 2019 record compiled as a 2-year-old by Bast, a handy bay filly who capped her season by giving her Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert, his sixth victory in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes.

Owned by the Baoma Corporation of Charles and Susan Chu, Bast began her career with a runner-up finish in an Aug. 11 maiden sprint at Del Mar. Baffert had seen enough to enter her back 20 days later in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, and with blinkers added, Bast responded with an 8 3/4-length triumph to immediately stamp herself as a major factor in the division.

“She needed her first start,” Baffert told Daily Racing Form afterward. “She needed one more work, but sometimes it’s better to run them.”

Four weeks later, Bast had her final Breeders’ Cup prep when grinding out a neck victory as the 1-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Chandelier at Santa Anita.

“She was going easy until the far turn, then came off the bridle,” said John Velazquez, who, with Drayden Van Dyke, was one of two jockeys to ride her during the year. “I was like, ‘You can’t do that to me.’ She just kept a head in front. She was telling me, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ ”

:: Full list of 2019 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Nearly five weeks later, Bast was sent away the 9-2 fourth choice amid a field of nine in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, contesting the pace before finishing third, two lengths behind the victorious British Idiom.

Bast ended her campaign with a wire-to-wire score in the Dec. 7 Starlet, holding off the heavy favorite, BC Juvenile Fillies runner-up Donna Veloce, by a half-length. During a sustained stretch duel, “I could feel I still had horse,” said Van Dyke. “I switched my stick to the left hand, and when I did she gave me a little extra.”

Bast earned a career-high 89 Beyer Speed Figure in the Starlet.

“She’d been training much better for this than the Breeders’ Cup,” said Baffert. “We beat a good filly. I thought it would come down to those two.”

Bast, by Uncle Mo out of Laffina, by Arch, ended her year with a 3-for-5 record and earnings of $732,200. Bred in Kentucky by BlackRidge Stables, she sold for $500,000 as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale in August 2018. “She was a standout,” said Baffert, who bought her in consultation with bloodstock agent Donato Lanni.

Bast already has raced once at 3, winning the Grade 2 Santa Ynez at Santa Anita on Jan. 5, and was scheduled for a brief freshening prior to being prepped for the May 1 Kentucky Oaks, a race Baffert has won three times.