Hope Road cruises to Bayakoa win; on to La Brea next

DEL MAR, Calif. – Hope Road continued her class ascent Saturday at Del Mar by winning the Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes for fillies and mares, a race that got easier when her Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Show Card flipped in the paddock and was scratched.

Show Card appeared fine after the incident. “She can be antsy,” Baffert said. “She was actually behaving, but she was on her toes. She went up, and lost her footing.”

Whether or not Show Card could have caught Hope Road ($2.60) is only conjecture, and the stablemates are unlikely to meet soon.

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Hope Road will cut back in distance and run seven furlongs in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. Show Card is likely to continue racing around two turns.

Juan Hernandez rode Hope Road, who set the Bayakoa pace while pressed by longshot Saddle Up Jessie. The first half-mile of the mile race went in 46.11 and Hope Road was cruising. Alpha Bella tucked third on the rail, angled outside into the lane and took aim. But the favorite held sway to win by a half-length in a workmanlike final time 1:36.51.

“She’s fast from the gate,” Hernandez said. “I could see she wanted to run, so I just let her go to the lead. I felt the pace was a little strong, but she’s a real nice filly and I knew she could do that.”

The win was Hope Road’s fourth straight. She won the Grade 3 Torrey Pines for 3-year-old fillies in summer at Del Mar; the Bayakoa was her first against older stakes fillies and mares. “We expected her to do what she did,” Baffert said, noting he “trained her mother. She can run farther than her mother.”

Hope Road, by Quality Road, was produced by Grade 1-winning sprinter Marley’s Freedom.

The runner-up Alpha Bella ran well for second and will continue her California campaign this winter in distance races on turf or dirt.

Desert Dawn rallied to finish third in her career finale for trainer Phil D’Amato and the owner-breeder mother-daughter team of Elena and Hollie Crim. A 5-year-old Arizona-bred by Cupid, Desert Dawn retires having won 3 races and $1,070,525 from 23 starts. A Grade 3 winner and multiple Grade 1 placed, including a third-place finish in the 2022 Kentucky Oaks.

Desert Dawn will go to Kentucky and be bred next spring, possibly to Nyquist.

After top three Bayakoa finishers Hope Road, Alpha Bell, and Desert Dawn, the order of finish was Sun Of Hill, Victorious, and Saddle Up Jessie.

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