Baffert mulls multiple next-race options for Mor Spirit

ARCADIA, Calif. – Options abound for Mor Spirit, who scored his second straight stakes victory on Saturday in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita. He will have either one or two more preps before the May 7 Kentucky Derby, according to trainer Bob Baffert.

Mor Spirit came out of the Lewis in excellent condition, Baffert said Sunday morning, but the four-time Derby-winning trainer was in no hurry to map out a concrete schedule for Mor Spirit. The most obvious scenario would find Mor Spirit staying at Santa Anita for the Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe Stakes on March 12 and then the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 9.

But because Mor Spirit came back on just three weeks’ rest to win the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19, and performed equally well off a seven-week break between the Los Alamitos Futurity and the Lewis, Baffert said race spacing is no concern.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet,” Baffert said. “He’s run well off a quick turnaround, and with a longer layoff. I’m just going to wait and see, probably not make a decision until after he comes back and works.

“A lot was going to depend on how he handled the race. It wasn’t a hard race on him. He’s a big, strong horse.”

Baffert said he would even consider going to Oaklawn Park for the Rebel on March 19, and also mentioned the Florida Derby at Gulfstream on April 2 as a possible option, since Mor Spirit – like 2-year-old champion Nyquist – is eligible to a $1 million bonus in the Florida Derby since he was purchased, for $650,000, as a 2-year-old in training out of the Fasig-Tipton sale last March.

“He’s eligible for that bonus. I’m not saying we’d go chasing it, but he’s eligible,” Baffert said. “We’ve got a lot of options.”

Mor Spirit, a son of Eskendereya, is owned by Michael Lund Petersen. Gary Stevens has ridden him in four of his five career starts, with three wins, all of them around two turns. He got a Beyer Speed Figure of 92 in the Lewis.

“He wasn’t even blowing after the race,” Stevens said. “I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of him in the morning yet.

“He seems to just do just enough for what’s in front of him. He likes a target. I think as he faces better horses, he’ll only get better.”