Essential Wager notches third consecutive victory with Palos Verdes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Essential Wager was late to finally get to the races, but he’s making up for lost time. After a losing debut in October of his 3-year-old year a little more than three months ago, he has rattled off three straight wins, and on Saturday got his first stakes score with a game, front-running tally in the Grade 3, $200,000 Palos Verdes Stakes for older runners.

Essential Wager ($5.60), the second choice to his Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Cezanne, took the lead in the opening strides of the six-furlong race, put away early challenger Team Merchants, then turned back Shooters Shoot in the final furlong to prevail by a neck.

Cezanne, last early in the five-horse field, rallied belatedly for a non-threatening third, 2 3/4 lengths behind Shooters Shoot.

Team Merchants faded to fourth, and Dark Vader trailed. Arham was a scratch earlier in the day.

:: Win big at Santa Anita: Get DRF Past Performances, Picks, Clocker Reports and Betting Strategies.

Essential Wager set splits of 22.21 seconds for the opening quarter and 45.17 for the half en route to a final time of 1:09.95 on the fast main track.

“He’s getting better and better,” Baffert said. “He trained really well for this. He took a lot of heat and kept on going.”

Essential Wager, 4, is by Honor Code out of the Officer mare Mr Hall’s Opus. He was second in his first start, here Oct. 15 when going seven furlongs, and has now won three straight, all at six furlongs – against maidens at Del Mar, a first-level allowance at Los Alamitos, and now the Palos Verdes.

Abel Cedillo picked up the mount when Flavien Prat, who had ridden Essential Wager to his two prior wins, opted for Cezanne, whom Prat had ridden in all four of his prior starts. Essential Wager benefitted from recent racing. Cezanne was making his first start since April, and only his second since August 2020. He had never raced as short as six furlongs.

“I needed to get a race into him. I want to stretch him out next time,” Baffert said of Cezanne.

Essential Wager is owned by the long-time partnership of Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman. They purchased him as a 2-year-old in training for $300,000. He didn’t debut until 18 months later. He earned $120,000 on Saturday to bring his career earnings above the $200,000 mark.