Breeders' Cup Juvenile: Baffert brings pair of undefeated colts
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While most of the focus of Bob Baffert’s bid to win a record-extending seventh Breeders’ Cup Juvenile will be on the undefeated Hughes – and rightly so – the Hall of Fame trainer will send out another undefeated colt in the $2 million race to be run Oct. 30 at Keeneland.
Salahudin, a son of 2010 Juvenile winner Uncle Mo, may not win with the flair of his more celebrated stablemate Hughes, but he will bring a 3-for-3 record into the Juvenile. Salahudin won a maiden race by two lengths at Ellis Park in July and came back 23 days later to win the Ellis Park Juvenile by 4 1/2 lengths on Aug. 9 before winning the Grade 3 Iroquois at Churchill Downs by a half-length on Sept. 12.
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Hughes and Salahudin were two of nine horses pre-entered in the Juvenile, a race that often defines the winter-book favorite for the following year’s Kentucky Derby. Only Street Sense, the 2006 Juvenile winner, and Nyquist, who won it in 2015, have come back the following year to win the Derby.
Baffert believes that Salahudin will improve as the distances get longer. The Juvenile, at 1 1/16 miles, will be the farthest Salahudin will have run and his first time going two turns. His victory in the Iroquois came at a one-turn mile.
“He needs distance. He’s doing something he really doesn’t want to do, but he’s winning anyway,” said Baffert, who trains Salahudin for Amr Zedan. “He’s a true mile-and-a-quarter horse, distance-wise. But he has speed.”
Salahudin hasn’t gotten away from the gate that well in his first three starts, but “once he gets his feet under him then he gets going,” Baffert said. “When he makes the lead, he just idles. He’s not one that’s going to draw off and win by 10.”
On the other hand, Hughes, a son of Into Mischief, is the type that draws off and wins by many. His smallest margin of victory in four starts came by 4 3/4 lengths in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 6. He then passed his two-turn test with aplomb, winning the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes by six lengths.
“What’s behind him, I’m not sure, but he’s done it pretty easily,” Baffert said. “He’s the kind of horse that loves to train. He’s a very happy horse. He’s very proud of himself. He’s got that attitude.”
Though Juan Hernandez rode Hughes in his last three starts, Flavien Prat will ride him in the Juvenile.
“If it was in California, I would have left [Hernandez] on him,” Baffert said. “We’re here in Kentucky. I’m set up here in the Midwest now, that’s why I went with Prat.”
Irad Ortiz Jr. will ride Salahudin. Jose Ortiz, who filled in for an injured Florent Geroux in the Iroquois, rides Coach Pope in the Juvenile. Coach Pope comes off a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Futurity.
Trainer Todd Pletcher, who has won the Juvenile five times, including last year with Ted Noffey, pre-entered American History and Damavand. American History comes off a one-length victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity run Oct. 3 at Keeneland. Damavand comes off a neck victory in a maiden race on Oct. 4.
Damavand is owned by Amo Racing, which also pre-entered Earth Song, fourth in the Champagne. Gaudreau, second in the Champagne; He Is No Lie, second in the Iroquois; and Net Par, second in the American Pharoah, were the others pre-entered in the Juvenile.
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