Baffert's older bench is deep
ARCADIA, Calif. – In most years, the Bob Baffert-trained 3-year-olds are the runners to fear in the spring and summer. This year, the older horses are carrying the team.
Aside from Arrogate, the top-rated runner in the world who won the Dubai World Cup in March, Baffert has won graded stakes in the last two months with the older horses Collected, Cupid, Danzing Candy, and Mor Spirit.
Collected and Cat Burglar give Baffert a solid duo in Saturday’s Grade 3 Precisionist Stakes at Santa Anita. There are only five runners in the $100,000 Precisionist, run at 1 1/16 miles. Accelerate, third to the Baffert-trained Hoppertunity in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes in February, will be well backed.
Trainer Doug O’Neill has two runners – Donworth and Keane. Donworth has not raced since finishing third in the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic in West Virginia in April 2016. The Precisionist will be the American debut for Keane, a 5-year-old Argentine-bred who was a Group 1 winner at 1 1/2 miles last November.
KEY CONTENDERS
Collected, by City Zip
Last 3 Beyers: 104-101-70
◗ Owned by Speedway Stable, Collected is unbeaten in two starts this year – the Santana Mile on April 1 and the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on April 22. He was a candidate for the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 27 but was not entered.
“Right before the Gold Cup, he went flat on me,” Baffert said. “He’s come back, and he looks like he’ll run okay again.”
◗ Last weekend, Baffert was considering stakes in other states for Collected, but he said on Thursday that leaving Collected in California is a better decision for the start of the summer.
“I feel like it’s a good spot for him,” Baffert said. “He wasn’t ready to ship.”
◗ Collected, who will be ridden by Martin Garcia, is capable of leading but is likely to follow stablemate Cat Burglar, who almost always races near the front.
Cat Burglar, by Unbridled’s Song
Last 3 Beyers: 90-97-102
◗ Cat Burglar won his only start this year, an optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs on March 31. Last year, Cat Burglar won the Santana Mile at Santa Anita. Baffert considers Cat Burglar to be capable of running in long sprints or races at about a mile. Cat Burglar drew the outside post for the Precisionist.
“I didn’t know whether to run him seventh-eighths or a mile and a sixteenth,” Baffert said. “He tries hard.”
Accelerate, by Lookin At Lucky
Last 3 Beyers: 104-100-99
◗ Accelerate won the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Derby last September and was later third in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. More recently, he was second to Danzing Candy in an optional claimer at a mile May 5.
◗ Trainer John Sadler scratched Accelerate from the Gold Cup at Santa Anita in favor of the Precisionist.
“He’s doing great,” Sadler said. “I expect a very good run.”