Taiba takes solid victory over strong Pennsylvania Derby field
BENSALEM, Pa. - In terms of experience, Taiba has been playing catch-up for most of the year in a pretty deep 3-year-old division.
On Saturday, in the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby, Taiba, under Mike Smith, recorded an authoritative three-length victory over a talented field that included fellow Grade 1 winners Zandon and Cyberknife, who finished second and third, respectively.
“He might have just caught up,” Smith said. “But there’s room to grow.”
That could be a scary thought heading into the fall, when Taiba will next step out of the 3-year-old division and run against the mighty Flightline in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 6.
“I don’t know how close we’ll get, but we’re coming for him,” Bob Baffert, the trainer of Taiba, said.
Taiba was talented enough to win the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in his second career start, stretching out from six furlongs to 1 1/8 miles to do it. After that, he ran in the Kentucky Derby, in which he finished 12th. He ran a solid second to Cyberknife, beaten a head, in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on July 23.
Unable to run in the Travers due to the New York Racing Association banning Baffert from its tracks until next January for past medication violations at other jurisdictions, Baffert pointed Taiba to the Pennsylvania Derby.
The time between races seemed to benefit Taiba.
“He finally had some time there, he’s learned how to run, we got the chance to get caught up,” Baffert said.
In the Pennsylvania Derby, Smith used Taiba’s speed to get to the lead coming under the wire the first time, but he was content to let White Abarrio, under Luis Saez, clear him entering the first turn. Taiba was a length back after an opening quarter of 23.27 seconds.
Simplification and then We the People moved in front of Taiba and Smith was content to sit fourth down the backside.
At the five-sixteenths pole, We the People began to drop back and Smith guided Taiba three-wide to the outside with just Simplification and White Abarrio in front of him. Taiba was in the four-to-five-path in the lane, but he had plenty of run to turn back a challenge from a rail-rallying Zandon and win going away.
“He has a turn of foot on the dirt that’s like a great grass horse, which is very unusual,” Smith said. “He’s learning to rate. Now that he’ll take dirt in his face, he’s going to be even more dangerous. He was just getting used to the dirt early on when he was young; you can just let him settle now.”
Baffert said he was a little concerned seeing Taiba on the inside down the backside.
“I was like ‘Oh man, here we go again, I hope he gets out of there,’ " Baffert said. “I was a little bit leery about it down the backside, I hope he knows what he’s doing and he did.”
Taiba, owned by Amir Zedan - the same owner as disqualified 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit - covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.67 and returned $4.80 as the favorite and getting a 108 Beyer Speed Figure.
The victory was Baffert’s first Grade 1 outside of Southern California since Gamine won the Ballerina 13 months ago at Saratoga.
“It feels great, we lost the Haskell by a little bit,” Baffert said. “It’s good to be back and see those horses run so well. That’s what we do, we work hard, we got a great team, we like playing at the top level.”
Zandon, who won the Grade 1 Blue Grass and finished third in the Kentucky Derby and Travers, saved all the ground under Joel Rosario, but could only manage second, 3 3/4 lengths ahead of Cyberknife.
“It looked like we were in a good spot going to the backside,” said Joel Rosario, who rode Zandon for the first time since a maiden victory last October. “He started creeping up and moving forward at the three-eighths. It looked like for a second we were going to win the race, but the winner was tough.”
Cyberknife was eighth early on under Florent Geroux and appeared to be fighting the kickback. He split horses down the backside and was able to gut out third by a head over Simplification.
“Honestly, I didn’t like the way he was traveling, it was not like him to be farther back and putting his head in the air and kind of climbing,” Geroux said. “He made a nice middle move down the backside. I was able to creep up and be right behind Taiba turning for home, but after that when Taiba rebroke, [Cyberknife] was unable to sustain his move.”
Following Simplification in the order of finish were White Abarrio, B Dawk, Naval Aviator, We the People, Skippylongstocking, Tawny Port and Icy Storm.
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