Breeders' Cup Sprint: Baffert has another blazing 3-year-old
?q=100)
Only nine 3-year-olds have captured the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in the 39-year history of the event, the most recent being Drefong for trainer Bob Baffert at Santa Anita in 2016.
Drefong won the Sprint despite having made only five starts coming into the race, a résumé eerily similar to Baffert’s latest 3-year-old sprint star Speed Boat Beach, who will attempt to overcome his own relative inexperience taking on a field of vastly more accomplished rivals, including defending champion Elite Power.
Like Drefong seven years earlier, Speed Boat Beach will also have had only five starts prior to the Breeders’ Cup, three of which, oddly enough, came on the grass as a 2-year-old that included a disappointing ninth-place finish in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Unlike Drefong, however, Speed Boat Beach will enter the starting gate for the Sprint with only a single start this season, the Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Sept. 30.
Speed Boat Beach’s somewhat unconventional journey to the Sprint began in his career debut last summer at Del Mar which he won with a record-setting effort on the dirt and for which he received a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. Despite the magnitude of that performance, Baffert, who will be seeking a record-setting sixth victory in the Sprint, switched Speed Boat Beach to the turf for his next three starts, which featured a victory in the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille going a mile at Del Mar in his Juvenile finale. He would not make it back to the races for nearly 10 months before he was beaten just a head by 2021 BC Sprint runner-up Dr. Schivel following a near race-long pace duel in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship on dirt.
“He ran great but came up just a little short at the end of the race after the long layoff,” said Baffert of Speed Boat Beach’s 2023 bow. “He came out of the race well and as long as he continues to do well we’ll enter him in the Sprint. His next work will be extremely important.”
Baffert said lack of opportunities on the dirt and the desire to keep him separated from Cave Rock, who ultimately finished second as the odds-on favorite in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, compelled the Hall of Fame horseman to switch Speed Boat Beach to the turf for the remainder of his 2-year-old season.
“He’s very versatile and there wasn’t anything much sprinting for him on the dirt this time last year,” Baffert recalled. “I thought the Juvenile Turf Sprint was a good spot. Unfortunately he had a shoe fall off and hit him right in the belly during the race, so he had a legitimate excuse.”
Baffert admitted he had no idea who else might currently be pointing for the Sprint, although the unfortunate injury that will now keep the freakishly fast filly Echo Zulu out of the race should be an advantage for Speed Boat Beach, who figures to be part of the pace.
“I’m just focused and concentrating on getting him there, I’m not worrying about who else might be in the field at this point,” said Baffert. “And I’m not really concerned about him having had only the one start this year. Midnight Lute came into the Sprint the same way when he won it the second time.
“I do think it’s an advantage for us the race is here this year. There are so many factors involved in a race like this, with so little separating many of them in the field, especially if you have to ship. And we already know he really likes this racetrack.”
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.