Bast wins Starlet Stakes to wrap juvenile season

CYPRESS, Calif. – Bast concluded her 2-year-old season on Saturday with a win in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos, her third win in five starts in 2019.

All the wins were in Grade 1 races.

After consecutive wins in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante in her second start on Aug. 31, her first career victory, and the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Sept. 27, Bast was third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.

In the $300,000 Starlet Stakes, Bast ($6.40) led throughout under jockey Drayden Van Dyke and shook off a threat from 3-10 favorite Donna Veloce to win by a half-length. Donna Veloce was favored on the strength of a second-place finish by a neck to British Idiom in the BC Juvenile Fillies.

The win gave Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert a sweep of the two major stakes for 2-year-olds at Los Alamitos for the third consecutive year. Two races earlier on Saturday, Baffert won the Los Alamitos Futurity for a record 12th time, and for the sixth consecutive year, with Thousand Words.

Bast was the fourth of trainer Bob Baffert’s five consecutive wins on Saturday, a milestone for number of wins in a day at Los Alamitos since the track began daytime Thoroughbred racing in 2014.

Bast set early fractions of 22.80 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 47.22 for a half-mile on a track rated sealed-good from Friday rains. Bast led by a half-length on the final turn, but faced a sustained challenged by Donna Veloce in the stretch.

“I could feel I still had horse,” said Van Dyke. “I switched my stick to the left hand and when I did she gave me a little extra.”

Bast ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.36. She earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 89.

“She’d been training much better for this than the Breeders’ Cup,” Baffert said. “We beat a good filly. I thought it would come down to those two.”

Donna Veloce finished 12 lengths clear of 28-1 K P Dreamin, who was eighth in the BC Juvenile Fillies.

“She had a good trip,” said Simon Callaghan, who trains Donna Veloce. “No excuses. The track is a little gluey. Flavien said she didn’t take to the mud. That’s the way it goes.”

Gingham and Roadrunner’s Honor completed the order of finish in the small field.

Bast, by Uncle Mo, was purchased for $500,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale, and races for Susan Chu’s Baoma Corp. Bast has earned $732,200. She finished secod in her debut at Del Mar on Aug. 11.