Mizumi, with Summertime Oaks triumph, will hit the road
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ARCADIA, Calif. - It did not take long for the 3-year-old filly Mizumi to outgrow California.
Mizumi won her debut in a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on May 2, and her first start in a stakes with an eye-catching stretch run in Saturday’s Grade 2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita.
Trained by Bob Baffert for Charles and Susan Chu’s Baoma Corp., Mizumi is expected to race outside of California in coming months.
“She’ll go to Kentucky,” Baffert said on Sunday morning.
Specific race plans are uncertain, Baffert said. A long-range goal could be the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/4 miles on dirt at Saratoga on Aug. 22. The $600,000 Alabama Stakes is the nation’s leading race of the summer for 3-year-old fillies.
In California, the stakes schedule at the Del Mar summer meeting is not suited for a filly such as Mizumi.
Del Mar has two graded stakes on turf for 3-year-old fillies, notably the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks on Aug. 22, and one graded stakes on dirt for the division – the Grade 3, $150,000 Torrey Pines Stakes at a mile on Aug. 30.
On Sunday, Baffert seemed eager to try Mizumi against a higher level of competition while staying on dirt.
“It looks like distance is her friend,” Baffert said. “She’s still trying to figure it out.”
Mizumi won the Summertime Oaks at 1 1/16 miles by 3 3/4 lengths as the 3-5 favorite. She closed from fourth in a field of six to take the lead in the final furlong.
Baffert has divisions at Churchill Downs and in California. At the current Churchill Downs spring-summer meeting, Baffert had six wins from 28 runners through Sunday, with five of the wins in stakes. Baffert sent a group of approximately 34 horses to Churchill Downs in April.
His California group has divisions at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos.
A small number of the Kentucky-based runners could return to California for major stakes. Baffert said on Sunday that Cornucopian, winner of the Grade 3 Aristides Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 30, is a possible starter in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs at Del Mar on July 25.
The Santa Anita team includes the older horses Mirahmadi, Nevada Beach, and Privman.
Mirahmadi, who worked six furlongs in 1:10.60 from the gate at Santa Anita on Saturday, has not raced since a second-place finish in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar last July. The same race on July 18 could be Mirahmadi’s first start of 2026.
Privman was third behind Nevada Beach in the Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita last September, and won the minor Tokyo City Cup a month later in his most recent start.
Nevada Beach was seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar last November. In his only start this year, Nevada Beach finished 12th of 13 in the $20 million Saudi Cup in Saudi Arabia in February. On Saturday at Santa Anita, Nevada Beach had his first workout since late March, running a half-mile in 49.60 seconds.
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