Baffert babies to debut in sprint
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Her trainer describes her as quick. When the trainer is Bob Baffert and the filly is Holmby, who starts in Saturday’s fourth race at Del Mar, the compliment is worth noting.
Now Holmby has to win the five-furlong race for 2-year-old maiden fillies against nine rivals, including a well-regarded stablemate in Quatro Passi. Holmby, purchased for $55,000 as a yearling last July, will be ridden by Juan Hernandez and is likely to show speed from post 5 in her debut.
“She’s quick,” Baffert said.
At the same time, Baffert cautioned that the abbreviated distance of Saturday’s race is not ideal for Holmby or Quattro Passi.
“I don’t like going five eighths,” he said. “We’ve got to enter them and get races into them. I’d like further distance.”
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Quatro Passi, purchased for $190,000 as a yearling last September, will be ridden by Mike Smith from post 9. Quatro Passi, by Girvin, is out of Whatashame, the dam of Papa Ken, a winner of his debut in a 2-year-old maiden race at Churchill Downs in June 2025.
Trainer Michael McCarthy starts Dash, who is by Cyberknife and is out of Blast, a debut winner in her first start in a maiden race at Churchill Downs in 2015. Dash is a half-sister to Velocity, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks in 2025 who has since been retired. Velocity was trained by McCarthy for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, who owns Dash.
McCarthy described Dash as “not totally cranked up.”
“It’s nice to get her started and see where we are,” McCarthy said.
The field includes five runners with experience.
Janie Not Jeanie, trained by Doug O’Neill, was second in a maiden race at five furlongs at Santa Anita on Jan. 11 in her first start. She closed from fifth and reached second in the final furlong.
Make Me Money, who starts from the inside post in Saturday’s race, set the pace and faded to finish third in the same race as Janie Not Jeanie. Make Me Money is trained by Luis Mendez.