Breeders' Cup Classic: Hoppertunity is Baffert's overlooked multimillionaire
ARCADIA, Calif. – Long before American Pharoah arrived, and then left, before Dortmund came along, and then Arrogate, too, there has been Hoppertunity, the old reliable of trainer Bob Baffert’s barn.
For the better part of three years now, Hoppertunity has faced the best in the world, and while he only earned his second Grade 1 victory last Saturday in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, he has now won five stakes races, more than $3.5 million, and has earned a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
Hoppertunity will be a longshot when compared to Baffert’s best chance, Arrogate, who is currently the second choice in the Classic on the future line set by Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper. But Hoppertunity’s victory last week was satisfying for those closest to him.
“He’s a very cool horse,” Baffert said Wednesday at Santa Anita as he waited for Arrogate to work. “He never has a bad day. He goes out, does his work, punches the clock. He’s a really level-headed horse. He’s like a fullback who doesn’t miss any games. When you need a yard, put him in.”
Hoppertunity, now age 5, has raced 22 times, with six victories. He did not make it to the races until January of his 3-year-old year but by his fourth start captured the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn. He subsequently was second to California Chrome in the Santa Anita Derby and figured as a major player in that year’s Kentucky Derby until he came out of his final work dinged up, forcing him to the sidelines until October 2014.
He has trained and raced steadily ever since. Hoppertunity won the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs that fall, the San Pasqual here in 2015, and earlier this year captured the San Antonio before finishing third in the Dubai World Cup.
The Gold Cup marked his first win at 1 1/4 miles – the same distance as the Classic – but he did just miss at that distance in the 2015 Santa Anita Gold Cup. The prospect of a hot pace in the Classic with Arrogate, California Chrome, and the comebacking Melatonin gives Baffert the hope that Hoppertunity again will give a good account of himself.
“There’s going to be a lot of pace, a lot of pace,” Baffert said with emphasis. “With Chrome, Melatonin, Arrogate, those are three serious speed horses. It might set up for a horse like Hopper.”
Hoppertunity has found California Chrome to be a hurdle too high to clear. He’s followed him home three times at Santa Anita as well as at Meydan and Del Mar. California Chrome’s presence in the 1 1/8-mile Awesome Again on Oct. 1 is what put Hoppertunity on a plane to New York for the Gold Cup.
“When he got here after Del Mar, he started training better than he ever has,” Baffert said. “I put him in the Awesome Again just in case something happened to Chrome – if he got a cough or something, you never know – but this track is too speedy, they don’t come back, and he needs a mile and a quarter.”
Baffert said he probably should have sent Hoppertunity east more often in his career. His two Grade 1 wins have come at Churchill Downs and Belmont Park, and he’s placed in graded stakes in his other three starts at Churchill Downs and Keeneland. Baffert said he considered sending Hoppertunity to the Woodward at Saratoga but balked when Frosted committed to that race.
In the Gold Cup, Hoppertunity was close to a moderate pace and outfinished Effinex.
“You let a closer stay that close turning for home, you’re doomed,” Baffert said.
John Velazquez, who rode Hoppertunity in the Gold Cup, has the mount back in the Classic, Baffert said.
The Classic is limited to 14 horses, but as of now, only 11 are possible for the race, with the connections of Frosted and Gun Runner still pondering whether to go in the Classic or Dirt Mile. Baffert committed Dortmund to the Dirt Mile, as he had hinted at following the Awesome Again.
California Chrome is the 7-5 favorite on Watchmaker’s line, making him the shortest-priced favorite of the 13 Breeders’ Cup races.
Arrogate, Watchmaker’s second choice, worked seven furlongs here Wednesday in 1:25.40. Rafael Bejarano was up, but Mike Smith – who rode Arrogate in the Travers – has the mount in the Classic. Arrogate galloped out strongly, a mile in 1:38, after going his first three furlongs in 37.20 seconds.
“He went off a little slow, but I don’t want him to go fast,” Baffert said. “That’s the way I want him to work when he goes long,”
Win the Space, also under consideration for the Classic, worked five furlongs in 1:00.60 at Santa Anita on Wednesday. And at the Greentree training facility near Saratoga, Frosted worked five furlongs in 1:00.