Hovdey: No holding back for Baze, Warren’s Veneda

The springtime stakes in Southern California always seem to struggle for relevance. It was tough enough when the Kentucky Derby alone sucked all the air from the room. Now, Churchill Downs surrounds its marquee race with a smorgasbord of events for every division this side of Tennessee plow mules.

Meanwhile, Belmont Park has amped up the Saturday between Triple Crown events, juicing the normally quiet, little Peter Pan card with such historic features as the Ruffian and Man o’ War.

At least the West Coast spring races like the Californian, Gamely, and Vanity had their own historic identities as Hollywood Park productions. The Vanity has run especially deep through the fabric of the game. Between the victory of the 3-year-old Busher over her elders in 1945, when she was Horse of the Year, and the three-peat of Zenyatta from 2008 through 2010, a win in the Vanity was part of championship seasons for Next Move, Bewitch, Two Lea, Gamely, Cascapedia, Track Robbery, Princess Rooney, Bayakoa, Paseana, Escena, Riboletta, Gourmet Girl, and Azeri in both 2002 and 2003.

Now, with the end of Hollywood Park, the Vanity has been absorbed by Santa Anita. As such, there is nothing in particular to differentiate the nine-furlong, main-track race from the earlier Santa Margarita, other than the fact that the Vanity is open to 3-year-olds. None of the 13 nominated fit that description.

At least the $300,000 purse for the Vanity compares favorably with the $300,000 offered for the same division last week in the La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs, as well as the $250,000 attached to the Ruffian. Unfortunately, not all of that $300,000 will be distributed Saturday because there are only four left to run, now that the favored Beholder must miss the race because of illness.

“I’m disappointed,” said Tyler Baze, who rides Santa Margarita winner Warren’s Veneda in what’s left of the Vanity for owner Ben Warren and trainer Craig Lewis. “I was really looking forward to running against Beholder.”

Baze’s confidence in Warren’s Veneda knows no bounds. He has ridden her to consecutive victories over increasingly better competition in the Paseana, Santa Maria, and Santa Margarita, and it could be argued that she ran winning races without winning her previous two starts in the Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos and the Betty Grable at Del Mar.

“She’s so straightforward and has such a will to win,” Baze said. “She just goes out there and has fun.”

The same can be said of her jockey. Given his history of serious injuries and alcohol abuse, Baze easily could have disappeared from the game and taken with him all the promise of his early career, which included an Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice of 2000. The future seemed without limit, but instead, Baze spent an agonizing period of time recovering from facial fractures suffered in July 2010 that required several surgeries. His struggle to return to work was complicated by personal issues that reached a dismal climax in 2013, when he was suspended indefinitely for alcohol-related transgressions.

The world sometimes can turn full circle if you hang on tight and let it. In April 2013, Baze was aboard the maiden 3-year-old filly Warren’s Veneda for a victory in the Alphabet Kisses Stakes for California-breds at Hollywood Park. Baze then rode her right back to win an allowance race, after which the rider’s personal life began to wreak havoc on his business.

When Baze was reinstated during the summer of 2014, he was simply happy to be on his way to better health and riding horses again. Lewis and Warren liked what they saw and gave their filly back to Baze for a small stakes on the grass at Santa Anita in October. They’ve been together ever since.

“I am so lucky to be able to get back on her,” Baze said. “She’s such a sweetheart. When you’re looking at her on the ground, she doesn’t look that big. But when you get on her, I swear she swells up. With her monster stride, she’s just a dream to ride.”

Baze can be forgiven his gushing praise. There are any number of reasons for the rider, 32, to have an emotional attachment to Warren’s Veneda. Not only is she spearheading his resurrection among the top jockeys out West, their reunion came about shortly after the birth of his daughter, Emilia Grace, who is 9 1/2 months old and, not surprisingly, has dad “wrapped around her fingers.”

According to the terms of his license, Baze still must report to the racing board for daily monitoring and testing on demand. If results are an indication of his newfound focus, there is reason to believe this is the Tyler Baze the game will enjoy for the foreseeable future. His ability in the saddle has never been an issue, as shown through the first part of the season, when he was second to Rafael Bejarano in the Santa Anita winter standings and is on top so far at the spring meet. Baze also ranks ninth nationally in purse earnings this year, in large part thanks to the more than $400,000 earned by Warren’s Veneda.

“I feel great, and I love my job, and a big part of that is riding a horse like Warren’s Veneda,” he said. “It’s too bad about Beholder because I wanted everybody to see how good she really is by running against a champion.”

Maybe we’ll see one anyway.