Baja Sur cruises to victory in Oakland Stakes

Trainer Blaine Wright has always had high hopes for Baja Sur, and the talented 3-year-old gelding gave him no reason to lower his expectations with a smashing victory in the $52,150 Oakland Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.

Baja Sur ($7.40) had been on the lead at every call in his first four starts at Emerald Downs, winning three stakes races as a 2- and 3-year-old. He ran second in the $100,000 Harris Farms Stakes at Fresno in his first start against older last month.

In the Oakland, Baja Sur broke alertly but Sigur Ros, who had won two straight claimers at Golden Gate, was able to gain the lead through a 21.75-second opening quarter and increased his margin two two lengths through a 44.12 opening half.

He still led by a head at the eighth pole, but Baja Sur, under Juan Hernandez, was already reeling him in.

Baja Sur rushed passed him and kept flying to the finish, winning the race by 4 1/4 lengths in 1:08.68.

“Juan rode a superior race,” said Wright. “We got together this morning, and he did the right thing. He let the other horse go and then went by him to the outside. I was hoping to see the horse do that. It shows he learned something at Fresno.

Sigur Ros was second, beating favored Oiseau de Guerre by a half-length to snap that one's three-race winning streak at Golden Gate. Late-running Smokey Image rallied from last to finish fourth, a neck behind Oiseau de Guerre.

Wright hopes to run Baja Sur once more as a 3-year-old, and said he and owners John and Janene Maryanski and Gerald Schneider would make plans on an upcoming vacation trip.

“The horse comes first,” said Wright of the son of Smiling Tiger, who was purchased for $67,000 as a yearling at a Washington sale. “We'll see how he comes out of this and go from there.”

With the $30,350 he earned from his fourth stakes victory and fifth win in six starts, Baja Sur has now earned $136,800.