Beautiful Gift targets Black-Eyed Susan
Bob Baffert held Beautiful Gift out of Friday’s Kentucky Oaks, but after watching her work Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs, he sort of wishes he hadn’t.
Beautiful Gift worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds in company with the 3-year-old colt Hozier. Baffert, who caught the filly galloping out seven furlongs in 1:25, is planning to run Beautiful Gift in the Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan on May 14 at Pimlico.
Beautiful Gift finished second as the odds-on favorite last out in the Santa Anita Oaks.
“It was coming up so tough and I wasn’t really happy with her last race,” Baffert said when asked why he didn’t run her in the Oaks.
Noting how well she worked on Wednesday, Baffert half-kiddingly said, “Why didn’t I run in the Kentucky Oaks?”
Prior to her second-place finish in the Santa Anita Oaks, Beautiful Gift won the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel.