Baffert nears Santa Anita training title

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hall of Famer Bob Baffert is well positioned to win the training title at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, which ends Sunday.

Through last Sunday, Bob Baffert led with 31 wins, one more than Peter Miller, who had two wins on Sunday. Richard Baltas was third with 28 victories.

Miller cannot catch Baffert, and could be passed by Baltas.

Miller began a seven-day suspension Monday for displaying aggressive or abusive behavior toward a stable employee in an incident at the San Luis Rey Downs training center last September.

During the suspension, which was announced by track stewards March 18, Miller cannot start horses and cannot be at the track or at Del Mar, where the bulk of his stable is based. The suspension ends Sunday.

Santa Anita races through June 24. The spring-summer meeting begins with two three-day racing weeks starting April 13.

Baffert has won 11 training titles at a spring-summer meeting, but has not led the final standings since the 2012-13 season.

Ruis sending horses to Kentucky, Pennsylvania

Owner and trainer Mick Ruis, whose stable is led by Triple Crown hopeful Bolt d’Oro, is sending a division of his horses to Kentucky and Pennsylvania this spring.

Ruis said Sunday that he will send approximately 20 horses out of California: eight to Keeneland, and the rest to Penn National and Parx Racing. Ruis will maintain a stable of more than 30 horses in Southern California.

“I’ll keep my base here,” he said.

Ruis said the expansion will allow him to have more runners.

Ruis is starting Bolt d’Oro in Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. Bolt d’Oro won two Grade 1 races last year – the Del Mar Futurity and FrontRunner Stakes – and was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.