Fascinating launches comeback in maiden race

ARCADIA, Calif. – There are big goals around trainer Bob Baffert’s stable for Fascinating, the Grade 1-placed 3-year-old filly who returns from a yearlong layoff in a maiden race at Santa Anita on Friday.

“The plan is to win numerous Grade 1’s,” Baffert said somewhat facetiously Wednesday.

On Friday, Fascinating starts in a one-mile race for fillies and mares. The maiden race will be her first start since a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes here in September 2013. For Baffert, the coming months present an opportunity to showcase Fascinating’s ability.

“We were so high on her,” Baffert said. “She had a problem with a muscle pull in her hind end. She looks great. She’ll be a little rusty. After this race, we can head down the road.”

While winning numerous Grade 1 races will be difficult, there are expectations that Fascinating can take a prominent role in the older-filly division in 2015. She is a filly who needs two turns, Baffert said.

“I didn’t want to run her short,” he said. “She needs a distance.”

Fascinating is part of a field of eight in Friday’s fourth race. She is not the only filly with stakes experience. Live for Now was second in the Grade 2 Summertime Oaks here June 21 but was only fourth in a maiden race at Del Mar on July 30.