Newgate returns from long layoff in race 6 on Saturday

Before Newgate was sidelined with an injury last February, he was rated as one of trainer Bob Baffert’s leading 3-year-olds of 2023.

The focus has changed to a 4-year-old campaign that begins when Newgate runs for the first time in 11 months in an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Saturday.

“It’s a starting point,” Baffert said on Friday. “He’s not a sprinter, but it’s a good race to come back. It will set up for down the road.”

Owned by a partnership that includes SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stable, Newgate has won 2 of 6 starts, including the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes at 1 1/16 miles last February.

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At the time, Newgate was rated as a potential Kentucky Derby prospect for jockey Frankie Dettori, who was spending his first winter in Southern California on a full-time basis. Dettori was expected to retire last year, but announced in the fall that he was relocating to California to continue his career.

Dettori has the mount on Newgate on Saturday.

Newgate starts from the inside in a field of six that includes the multiple stakes winners Big City Lights and Ginobili.

Big City Lights was second to top California-bred The Chosen Vron in the Cary Grant Stakes for statebreds at seven furlongs at Del Mar in November in his first start since January.

Ginobili, who is entered to be claimed for $80,000 on Saturday, has not raced since he finished last of eight in the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn Park last February. Ginobili won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar in 2021.

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