As Time Goes By ends skid with Bayakoa triumph
CYPRESS, Calif. - Rivals took turns challenging As Time Goes By in the final half-mile of Sunday’s Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos - to no avail.
First, Stellar Sound made a wide move with a half-mile remaining to race within a half-length of leader As Time Goes By. Stellar Sound faded in early stretch, replaced by Warren’s Showtime, who closed with determination to hold a brief lead. As Time Goes By repelled Warren’s Showtime to win the $100,500 Bayakoa by 1 1/4 lengths for her third stakes win of 2021.
Winning jockey Flavien Prat said As Time Goes By responded when threatened by Stellar Sound and again in coming back against Warren’s Showtime in the stretch.
“She regrouped and she went on by,” Prat said.
Sent off favored in a field of six, As Time Goes By ($4.20) ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.97 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 89.
Warren’s Showtime, an 8-1 chance who won two stakes earlier this year, held second, five lengths clear of the 3-year-old filly Moonlight D’Oro, the 5-2 second choice.
Stellar Sound finished fourth, followed by Harvest Moon and Bye Bye Bertie.
Jockey Juan Hernandez thought Warren’s Showtime had made a winning move in the stretch, only to be passed by As Time Goes By.
“She ran a hard race,” Hernandez said of Warren’s Showtime. “She passed the other filly around the eighth pole, but the other filly is tough and came back and got me. I was in front for a little bit.”
As Time Goes By, a 4-year-old American Pharoah filly trained by Bob Baffert for the Coolmore syndicate, ended a four-race losing streak in the Bayakoa. As Time Goes By won consecutive Grade 2 stakes at Santa Anita in April and May.
More recently, As Time Goes By was eighth of 11 in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 6. As Time Goes By was as close as fourth on the turn, but faded through the stretch on a track that was not kind to horses that raced on the inside.
“The Breeders’ Cup was a complete throw-out,” Baffert said. “I knew she’d run well here.”
The win gave Baffert a sweep of the graded stakes at Los Alamitos over the weekend. The stable won its fifth consecutive running of the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes for 2-year-old fillies with Eda on Saturday.
As Time Goes By has won 5 of 12 starts and earned $535,600.
“She had to run well here to stay in training another year,” Baffert said. “I think she can get a Grade 1.”
As Time Goes By has started in four Grade 1 races, with her best result at that level a second in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita last March. The same race on March 5 could be on her agenda again in early 2022.