Breeders' Cup Classic next stop for Improbable after Awesome Again triumph

ARCADIA, Calif. - An emphatic win by Improbable in Saturday’s Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita gave the 4-year-old his third consecutive win at that level and left one knowledgeable observer pondering if the colt has reached his peak.

“He’s getting better and better,” trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday morning.

That could be a frightening thought in advance of Improbable’s next scheduled start, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 7.

Improbable, the 9-5 second choice, won the $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes at 1 1/8 miles by 4 1/2 lengths over Maximum Security, the 1-2 favorite. Maximum Security was the stylish winner of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 22.

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“He ran lights out,” Baffert said of Improbable.

Improbable did not start in the Pacific Classic, having won the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 1. The current Grade 1 winning streak began with a convincing win by 3 1/4 lengths in the Hollywood Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Santa Anita on June 6.

Improbable has won 7 of 14 starts and earned $1,709,520. The Awesome Again Stakes was Improbable’s sixth stakes win.

Maximum Security had a six-race winning streak end in the Awesome Again, dating to a second in the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park in June 2019. In the Awesome Again, Maximum Security raced in third for the first six furlongs, stalking pacesetter Take the One O One. Maximum Security could not keep pace with Improbable.

“He didn’t give up,” Baffert said.

Baffert will know the depth of his BC Classic team after this weekend. Maximum Security, the champion 3-year-old male of 2019, will start in the BC Classic. Authentic, the winner of the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5, and Thousand Words, scratched from the Kentucky Derby after becoming upset in the paddock, are scheduled to start in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.