Baffert could go for Grade 1 sweep with Adare Manor in Apple Blossom

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Southern California-based trainer Bob Baffert could attempt a sweep of the Southwest market’s two Grade 1 races.

He accounted for the first offering Saturday when Muth won the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby. Baffert said Sunday he could send a runner for the second Grade 1 race in the region, the $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap on April 13.

“I was looking at maybe Adare Manor for the Apple Blossom,” he said.

The Grade 1-winning millionaire launched her 5-year-old season March 9 and was second by a half-length in the Beholder Mile at Santa Anita. For the effort, Adare Manor earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 102. She races for Michael Lund Petersen.

The Arkansas Derby and Apple Blossom are both part of Oaklawn’s annual Racing Festival of the South. The series of major stakes was previously run over the final week of the meet, but is now spread out over the last portion of the season since Oaklawn began racing into May.

Baffert swept the Grade 1 races in 2012, when Bodemeister took the Arkansas Derby and Plum Pretty won the Apple Blossom. Overall, the trainer has won 25 graded stakes races at Oaklawn, according to records from Daily Racing Form.

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