Chasing Yesterday starts her year with win in Sunland Park Oaks

American Pharoah’s kid sister is growing up quite nicely.

Chasing Yesterday, a 3-year-old half-sister to the famous 2015 Triple Crown winner, won her 2019 debut in Sunday’s $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks at the southern New Mexico track. The win put Chasing Yesterday on schedule for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3.

Ridden by Drayden Van Dyke, Chasing Yesterday ($2.10) won the Sunland Park Oaks by 1 1/4 lengths over 36-1 K P Slickem despite hopping in the air at the start, an incident trainer Bob Baffert described as a “really bad nightmare.”

Chasing Yesterday recovered and stalked the pace with a wide trip on the backstretch before taking the lead with more than three furlongs to run. Chasing Yesterday led by more than a length entering the stretch.

“Thankfully, she’s such a good filly that she gathered herself right away,” Baffert said in a televised interview. “I felt pretty good on the backstretch. I thought, ‘We’ll find out how good of a mare she is.’ She showed today, class prevailed.”

Chasing Yesterday ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.18 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 68. K P Slickem, who was second and third in two minor stakes at Sunland Park earlier this year, finished a neck in front of 16-1 Backflash in the field of eight.

Chasing Yesterday has won of 5 of 6 starts and earned $440,650. Chasing Yesterday is by Tapit, while American Pharoah is by the late Pioneerof the Nile.

Owned by breeder Summer Wind Equine, Chasing Yesterday ended her 2-year-old season in 2018 with a win in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos.

Baffert intended to run Chasing Yesterday in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita on March 10, but the race was canceled when Santa Anita suspended racing earlier this month to conduct an inspection of its main track following a series of equine fatalities since the start of the year. The Sunland Park Oaks became the backup race.