Santa Anita: Awesome Baby uncatchable in Santa Ynez

ARCADIA, Calif. – After winning impressively in her debut at Del Mar five months ago, Awesome Baby tailed off in her two subsequent starts, but after a brief freshening, she returned to her best form on Saturday at Santa Anita when scoring a front-running victory in the Grade 2, $196,000 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

The 6 1/2-furlong Santa Ynez had just four runners, with trainer Bob Baffert sending out half the field. Awesome Baby ($12.60), the longer priced of his two runners, was sent to the lead, while his other filly, 4-5 favorite Crushed Velvet, fell into a perfect, stalking position behind Awesome Baby and Taste Like Candy.

But Crushed Velvet flattened out, and Awesome Baby turned back pace challenger Taste Like Candy to prevail by three-quarters of a length, with Crushed Velvet another 2 3/4 lengths back in third. Race longshot Uzziel trailed throughout.

Awesome Baby set fractions of 21.76 seconds, 44.45, and 1:09.62 en route to a final time of 1:16.62 on the fast main track.

“I was a little disappointed in her last two races. She wasn’t finishing,” Baffert said. “Today, she got out there, and I could tell at the three-eighths that this was going to be like her maiden. Her maiden was real impressive.”

Awesome Baby romped by 4 3/4 lengths going 5 1/2 furlongs on Polytrack in her debut on Aug. 4. She was favored 27 days later in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, but stopped after dueling for the lead and wound up seventh of eight. In her only other start, she again tired badly, this time going 1 1/16 miles, in the Grade 1 Chandelier here on Sept. 28, a performance that took her out of consideration for the Breeders’ Cup and allowed for a brief vacation.

Awesome Baby had been ridden in her first three starts by Martin Garcia, but he rode Crushed Velvet in the Santa Ynez, so Mike Smith picked up the mount on Awesome Baby. Both Smith and Garcia share the same agent, Brad Pegram.

Baffert said Awesome Baby likely would remain in sprints, while Crushed Velvet -- who was making only her second start on Saturday -- would stretch out around two turns for her next start.

Awesome Baby, a daughter of Awesome Again, is owned by Kaleem Shah.

In the race following the Santa Ynez, Smith struck again, aboard Cyclometer in the $75,000 Midnight Lute, an overnight sprint stakes for older sprinters. He is trained by Bruce Headley.