Phast Pharoah on improve for Baffle Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Phast Pharoah was slow to come around, which makes him a fitting contender in the $75,000 Baffle Stakes on Friday at Santa Anita.

It took five months and six starts against maidens before Phast Pharoah finally won; his development matches the frustrating recent schedule of the Baffle for 3-year-old turf sprinters. Last year’s Baffle was scheduled for the hillside turf course, delayed by rain, then scrapped altogether.

This year’s Baffle was moved to 5 1/2 furlongs on the main turf course and was postponed for five days due to insufficient entries. Originally scheduled for Feb. 2, the Baffle goes as the fifth race on Friday’s seven-race card.

The delay is a mere inconvenience for Phast Pharoah, a course specialist whose sharp maiden win stamps him as the horse to beat. His main rivals are trained by Peter Miller – stakes-winning filly Bulletproof One, supplemented for $1,500, and Billy Batts, last seen finishing second at 55-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

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The field also includes Rookie Mistake, Doug O’Neill-trained stablemates Big Returns and Air Force Jet, and outsider Rager. Phast Pharoah is trained by Jeff Bonde, whose patience was tested while the colt lost the first five starts of his career.

“The ownership group had high expectations,” Bonde said. “So, whenever you don’t achieve your goals, you feel frustrated. But he’s come around.”

Bonde added blinkers to Phast Pharoah two starts back, and improvement was immediate.

“He’d had a couple troubled trips, and the riders thought [blinkers] would help him,” Bonde said. “He likes turf sprints, that’s his thing.”

Following a blinkers-on runner-up effort on dirt by Phast Pharoah, Bonde returned him to turf. He responded with a decisive sprint victory by 1 1/2 lengths while earning an 81 Beyer Speed Figure, highest in the Baffle field. The five-day postponement of the Baffle is a non-issue for Phast Pharoah, Bonde said.

“You always want to be able to run when you map out a plan, but with the amount of days in between, it worked out okay for us,” Bonde said.

Phast Pharoah worked five furlongs last Saturday. Flavien Prat replaces Joel Rosario on Phast Pharoah. Rosario is serving a three-day suspension for a riding infraction.

A tepid pace scenario would benefit Phast Pharaoh, a presser whose main rival is the filly Bulletproof One. Pacesetting runner-up last out in a route stakes for fillies, her previous turf sprint was a runner-up finish in a stakes race against males during the fall meet.

Billy Batts is the class of the Baffle. The challenge is distance. Billy Batts was unplaced in sprints in the first two starts of his career, and then finished in the money in five successive routes.