Distance the key to Nothing Like You's turnaround

CYPRESS, Calif. - Nothing Like You’s 2-year-old season ended much better than it began. The key to a successful turnaround was distance.

In sprints at 6 1/2 furlongs or less from early August to early October, her best result was a second in her debut at Del Mar in August. In three subsequent starts at distances ranging from seven furlongs to 1 1/16 miles since mid-October, Nothing Like You is unbeaten.

The most recent win was a comfortable victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Starlet Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Los Alamitos. Nothing Like You gave trainer Bob Baffert a seventh consecutive win in the track’s leading race for 2-year-olds fillies. Baffert won the Starlet three times at Hollywood Park before that track closed in 2013.

The manner of Saturday’s win came as a surprise to Baffert, who expected stablemate Grazia to lead and for Nothing Like You to stalk the pace. Instead, Nothing Like You was quickly to the front from an inside post under jockey Juan Hernandez.

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Nothing Like You drew away through the final furlong to win by 5 1/4 lengths. The other races in the winning streak are a one-mile maiden race at 7 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita on Oct. 14, and a hard-fought win by a nose in the Desi Arnaz Stakes at seven furlongs on Nov. 18. In the Arnaz, Nothing Like You closed from fourth in a field of five through the final three furlongs.

“It took Nothing Like You a while to come around,” Baffert said in the winner’s circle on Saturday. “She wasn’t real quick.

“We knew once we stretched her out that would be her game. The longer the better for her.”

By Malibu Moon, Nothing Like You races for the partnership of Georgia Antley Hunt, Jeff Giglio and John Rogitz. Nothing Like You has earned $237,160 in her six-race career. She was purchased for $190,000 at a 2-year-olds in-training sale in Florida in April.

Baffert did not state Nothing Like You's race plans for early 2024. At the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita that begins on Dec. 26, there are three Grade 3 races worth $100,000 early in the season for 3-year-old fillies – the Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs on Jan. 7, the Las Virgenes Stakes at a mile on Feb. 4, and the Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 3.

Races at Oaklawn Park may also be considered. Baffert frequently sends leading 3-year-olds to lucrative stakes at that track.

Great Forty Eight finished second in the $200,500 Starlet, but was demoted to fourth for drifting out and interfering with Chatalas in the stretch. On Sunday, the stewards met with apprentice jockey J.G. Torrealba, who rode Great Forty Eight, but did not take any action against the rider.

Because of the disqualification, Flynn’s Chance and Chatalas were promoted to second and third.

Steward Luis Jauregui said no blame was assigned to Torrealba. In the opinion of the stewards, Great Forty Eight shied from a gap on the inside where the turn of the five-eighths mile track meets the longer stretch used for Thoroughbed races, Jauregui said.

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