Itsinthepost gets back to winning ways in Whittingham

ARCADIA, Calif. – Julien Leparoux climbed off a plane on Saturday morning and learned he was riding Itsinthepost in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita.

Leparoux replaced an injured Tyler Baze, who is not riding this week because of body soreness sustained in a spill on May 19. In the minutes before the $200,345 Whittingham, Leparoux and Baze discussed the tactics needed to ride Itsinthepost.

The conversation helped Leparoux guide Itsinthepost to his fourth turf stakes win of the year, all at Santa Anita.

Leparoux kept Itsinthepost in fourth-place on the first turn and challenged stretch leader Kenjisstorm with a furlong remaining to win by a comfortable 1 1/4 lengths.

“The setup looked good before the race,” Leparoux said. “We tracked them and made a move. It was pretty easy.”

Itsinthepost ($3.80) ran 1 1/4 miles on turf in 2:02.10, getting a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. Kenjisstorm, who was third in the Grade 3 American Stakes at a mile on turf on April 21, held second, 2 1/4 lengths in front of Frank Conversation, the winner of the Grade 2 Twilight Derby here in 2016.

What a View finished fourth, followed by Flamboyant and Syntax.

What a View, the winner of the American Stakes, set a slow pace of 25.31 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 50.62 for a half-mile, leading by a length to 1 1/2 lengths through the first six furlongs. Kenjisstorm took the lead before the eighth pole, but could not hold off Itsinthepost.

“He relaxed well the first part,” said jockey Flavien Prat, who rode Kenjisstorm. “He can get rank on the first part.

“I thought I was gone. The other one was just faster.”

Itsinthepost, a French-bred gelding by American Post, has won seven stakes.

Trained by Jeff Mullins for Jed Cohen’s Red Barons Barn, the 6-year-old Itsinthepost has won 10 of 35 starts and earned $1,240,712 in France and the United States.

Itsinthepost won three consecutive Grade 2 races earlier this year on turf – the San Gabriel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Jan. 6, the San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on Feb. 3 and the San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on March 24. He finished third by three-quarters of a length in the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland on April 21.

“At marathon distances, he just excels,” Mullins said.

Saturday’s Whittingham Stakes was the first time Baze had not ridden Itsinthepost since April 2016, a span of 19 races. Baze has ridden Itsinthepost in 26 of his 30 races in the United States.

“Tyler basically lives with the horse,” Cohen said. “Julien is a very good rider. Still, it’s a change.”