Eight Rings works five furlongs; Cezanne has setback

Eight Rings, a Grade 1 winner for trainer Bob Baffert in 2019, is approaching his 4-year-old debut in coming weeks, while Cezanne, the easy winner of the Grade 3 Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita on April 18 in his 4-year-old debut for the stable, has been taken out of training.

Baffert said on Friday that Cezanne encountered a “setback.”

A $3.65 million purchase as a 2-year-old, Cezanne zoomed to an exciting 9 3/4-length win over three rivals in the Kona Gold Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 106.

Eight Rings worked five furlongs in 58 seconds from the gate at Santa Anita on Friday. He has had a steady series of workouts since mid-March.

“We’re just getting him ready,” Baffert said. “I haven’t picked anything out yet for him yet.”

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Eight Rings won the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita in 2019 and has not raced since finishing seventh in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Saratoga last August.