Baffert trying to upset Monomoy Girl in Ruffian with Mother Mother

ELMONT, N.Y. – Bob Baffert will find himself in the rare role of hunter instead of hunted in a graded stakes in New York when he sends out Mother Mother against the champion Monomoy Girl in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Ruffian Stakes at Belmont Park.

Mother Mother was one of just four horses entered against Monomoy Girl, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2018. With only five horses in the field, the Ruffian will go as race 4 on a 10-race card that begins at 1:15 p.m. Eastern.

Mother Mother has been in New York all spring but doesn’t have much to show for her visit. She finished fourth in the Harmony Lodge Stakes going six furlongs over a muddy track here June 5. She was scratched out of the Grade 3, $100,000 Vagrancy Handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs on June 27 due to a quarter crack, according to Baffert.

Baffert said he probably should have scratched Mother Mother out of the Harmony Lodge.

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“It was too short and it was wet,” said Baffert, noting the off track.

The Ruffian is run as a one-turn mile. Mother Mother won the Rags to Riches Stakes, a one-turn mile, at Churchill Downs in the fall of her 3-year-old season. Her last victory came in the Kalookan Queen Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 20 at Santa Anita.

Since the fall of 2015, Baffert has won 10 graded stakes at Belmont Park from 17 starts, that includes the Grade 1 Acorn last month with Gamine. While most of his horses in those races have been favorites, Baffert knows he will be, at best, a distance second choice to Monomoy Girl, a five-time graded stakes winner.

“We’re taking a shot, you never now,” Baffert said. “Monomoy Girl, she might wake up on the wrong side of the bed.”

Monomoy Girl has made just one start in 19 months, that being an allowance win May 16 at Churchill Downs. Monomoy Girl drew post 5 and will be ridden by Florent Geroux.

The field is completed by Vexatious, whose lone win on dirt came in a maiden race in November 2016; Piedi Bianchi, who won the Correction Stakes going six furlongs at Aqueduct in March but was sixth in the Harmony Lodge; and Always Shopping, winner of last year’s Grade 2 Gazelle.