Baffert may run four in La Brea Stakes

With the brilliant Gamine in the midst of a brief rest, trainer Bob Baffert is reverting to his deep roster for the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

Baffert said Sunday that he plans to have as many as four runners in the $300,000 race at seven furlongs – Golden Principal, Himiko, Merneith and Provocation.

Merneith, the winner of the Fort Springs Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs at Keeneland on Nov. 7, worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Sunday, the quickest of 73 recorded works at the distance.

Golden Principal won an allowance race at a mile at Del Mar on Nov. 26, and was third in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes last January before she was given a lengthy rest. Himiko and Provocation were first and third in an allowance race at Del Mar on Nov. 8.

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“They’re all doing well,” Baffert said.

Finite, the winner of the Grade 3 Chilukki Stakes at a mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 21, and Stellar Sound, third in the Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 6, are other possible starters.

Gamine, the leading contender for the 2020 Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding female sprinter, won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland on Nov. 7 for her third Grade 1 win of the year. Baffert said Sunday that Gamine is being given a 30-day rest.

“I want to freshen her,” he said. “I want to get her ready for the spring.”

While the $300,000 La Brea would seem custom-made for Gamine, Baffert said she is likely to be pointed to a race such as the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs in the spring.

The absence of Gamine from the La Brea changed Baffert’s plans.

“If Gamine was in the race, I’d probably run a couple,” he said.

Baffert may have two runners in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs on Dec. 26 in Charlatan and Thousand Words. The status of Thousand Words will be determined after an upcoming workout, Baffert said.

Thousand Words, unraced since an eighth-place finish in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on Oct. 3, worked a half-mile in 48.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Saturday.

Other expected starters in the $300,000 Malibu are Collusion Illusion, Express Train, Independence Hall, and Nashville.

Collusion Illusion, who was 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Nov. 7, worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 at Santa Anita on Saturday.