San Felipe: Imagination wins the bob in all-Baffert photo

ARCADIA, Calif. – The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Twenty-five years after trainer Bob Baffert won his first Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes with Prime Timber, history repeated itself Sunday at Santa Anita.

Imagination out-gamed stablemate Wine Me Up in the 1/16-mile San Felipe; John Shirreffs-trained Mc Vay finished third. It was the same result as 1999 when Prime Timber and Baffert-trained Exploit finished one-two in the San Felipe, while Shirreffs-trained High Wire Act finished third.

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Imagination ($3.80 favorite) won the San Felipe by a head over Wine Me Up; Mc Vay finished six and three-quarter lengths back in third place. Scatify was eliminated by trouble on the first turn, and finished 31 lengths behind Mc Vay.

The win by Imagination was the ninth San Felipe for Baffert. He did it without the top 3-year-old in his stable. The undefeated Nysos scratched. He is expected to start next in the Santa Anita Derby on April 6.

The win by Imagination was not without drama. Wine Me Up was sent hard from the gate from post 2, and eased inward. He made it tight on rail-drawn Scatify, who was uncomfortable inside and behind runners. Scatify came out and bumped Imagination into the first turn.

That did not sit well with Imagination, who took off. Imagination’s rider Frankie Dettori said Scatify “ran into me and it clipped his back legs. My horse got scared. He ran off on the back [stretch] a little bit. I managed to keep him wide and I got him to relax again.”

Imagination pressed Wine Me Up from the outside; it was a virtual match race to the wire. The fractions over a “fast” track that produced slow times were 47.04 seconds and 1:11.51. Imagination and Wine Me Up went head-and-head through the stretch, with Imagination winning the battle in 1:44.55, earning him a new career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 93.

“It didn’t pan out like I wanted to,” Dettori acknowledged. “[Imagination] showed courage. It was a great duel with Juan [Hernandez on Wine Me Up].”

The one-two finishes by Imagination and Wine Me Up validated the form of Baffert’s upper-tier 3-year-olds. Last out, Imagination finished a neck behind Maymun, who Baffert said is under consideration for the Arkansas Derby on March 30 at Oaklawn Park. Wine Me Up last time out finished more than seven lengths behind Nysos.

None of the Baffert-trainees are eligible to this year’s Kentucky Derby, due to Churchill Downs extending its ban of Baffert. The 50 points that would have been awarded the San Felipe winner, and 25 to the runner-up, go unclaimed.

The win extended Baffert’s dominance of the dirt division with male foals of 2021. Baffert has won eight of the nine graded stakes on dirt in California; his only loss was a runner-up finish by Muth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile won by Todd Pletcher-trained Fierceness.

Baffert’s graded winners on dirt with his current 3-year-old crop include two wins by Prince of Monaco, two by Muth, two by Nysos, and one each by Wynstock and Imagination.

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