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A Triumphant Return For Bob Baffert

Just like riding a bicycle.

Starting his first horses since serving a 90-day suspension issued by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, trainer Bob Baffert won the two races in which he had entered horses on the Saturday card at Los Alamitos. Baffert's victories included a win by High Connection (Connect) in the Los Alamitos Derby. It was Baffert's sixth straight win in the race that used to be known as the Swaps S. and his 12th overall in the mile-and-an-eighth contest.

Baffert had last started horses on Apr. 2. Afterward, he began serving a suspension, the result of Medina Spirit (Protonico) testing positive for the medication betamethasone in the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby.

Baffert began his afternoon with a win by Rhetoric (Quality Road) in the day's fifth race, a maiden special weight event for 3-year-olds. The Baffert-trained first-time-starter Western Cape (Curlin) finished third behind his stablemate.

“There's nothing like being back and here I am at Los Alamitos,” Baffert said in an interview with TVG following the maiden win. “Everybody has been welcoming me. There have been a lot of well-wishers, people glad to see me back. I'm glad to be back because I really missed it. While I was gone, Sean McCarthy, Jimmy Barnes, the whole team, they did a fantastic job. They kept it together. Here I am and I'm looking forward. I'm getting ready for Del Mar. This is where it all started for me, training quarter horses, so it's always been a special place for me. I'm just glad to be back.”

Despite Baffert's record in the Los Alamitos Derby, the betting public made Slow Down Andy (Nyquist) the favorite for trainer Doug O'Neill. But High Connection, ridden by Juan Hernandez, got past his rival in mid-stretch to prevail. He paid $5.40. Baffert also sent out Doppelganger (Into Mischief) in the race. He finished fourth.

Baffert will have one starter Sunday at Los Alamitos, Spooky Lady (Ghostzapper) in a maiden special weight race for fillies and mares.

Baffert remains ineligible for now to race at Churchill Downs, Churchill Downs-owned tracks and at the NYRA tracks. NYRA and Churchill suspended the trainer, a penalty separate from the Kentucky Racing Commission suspension.

Baffert returned to work on July 3, showing up at his barn at Santa Anita.

“It feels like the first day of school,” Baffert told the Los Angeles Times after his first day back.

Baffert said Barnes, his longtime assistant, was the first to greet him.

“He came over and gave me a big ole hug,” Baffert told the Times. “He said, 'Thank goodness, you're back.' I haven't talked to Jimmy since I left. Our whole barn is like a family, I've known them all for so long.”

Baffert told the Times that most of his owners stood by him during his suspension. He did lose at least one important horse as 2021 2-year-old champ 'TDN Rising Star' Corniche (Quality Road) was transferred to the Todd Pletcher barn.

“I lost some horses. Some owners are still waiting [to see what happens],” he told the Times. “I lost Corniche. That hurt. All in all, I've got great group of owners. They hung there in there with me, they know the truth and the facts.”

Baffert has fought all the charges and allegations thrown his way, but did admit to the Times that he made at least one mistake along the way.

“If I had to do anything different, I wouldn't have had a press conference,” Baffert told the paper. “But it was out there and [the media] was waiting….I was trying to get ahead of it. I was convinced after talking to my veterinarians, that [the positive] was impossible. Then it dawned on them 48 hours later, be careful with the [ointment] Otomax.”

During his absence, most of his horses were trained by his former assistant Tim Yakteen and McCarthy. Racing for Yakteen, Taiba (Gun Runner) won the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby before finishing 12th in the GI Kentucky Derby. Taiba, along with stablemate Pinehurst (Twirling Candy), have been nominated to the GI TVG.com Haskell S. on July 23 at Monmouth Park. Baffert has won the Haskell nine times.

Baffert can also begin to focus on the upcoming Del Mar meet, where he normally unveils what is always a well-stocked arsenal of 2-year-old talent. Baffert had 20 winners at last year's summer meet at Del Mar, finishing second in the standings behind Peter Miller, who had 26 wins.

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This Side Up: Back to Arcadia

So we get another day of sun, after all, out in La La Land. It was not so long ago that a night without end appeared to have descended on Santa Anita. Like Ryan Gosling's character in the film, fighting his quixotic rearguard action on behalf of jazz, we were clinging to the wreckage of a culture renounced by 21st Century society. “I'm letting life hit me till it gets tired,” he protests to his sister. “Then I'm going to hit back. It's a classic rope-a-dope.”

If we're honest, that's pretty much the way a lot of us reacted to what felt uncomfortably like an existential crisis in 2019. If the storm clouds could blot out the sun even over a racetrack most of us would have chosen as our proudest showcase, then nowhere was safe. Steeled by the nobility of the animal with whom we share our daily lives, we professed indignation over our alienation by an ever more urban society. Nobody could love these animals more than we did, nor tend their needs more lavishly. Yet all these people, having apparently failed to give much thought to the viability of horses as house pets, were presuming to question our idea of acceptable risk.

Luckily, there were some in our community who could see where that stubborn approach was going to take us. And that was to the sporting equivalent of a dive bar at the bottom of dingy staircase, with a few diehards leaning against the bar, listening to some unappreciated genius improvising mournfully at an old piano.

Those diehards are not always immune to a certain complacency. They elevate themselves from the herd not just by superior discernment, but also by sheer fidelity to a lost cause. But those who have rescued our sport from the brink did not want to reduce it some arrogant cult. They knew that we still had something very special to offer a mass audience. We just had to clean out the house before inviting anybody in.

The collective job they've done in California can't be praised enough, but that shouldn't stop us trying. Just cast your mind back to where we were after that harrowing spate of breakdowns at Santa Anita. Perhaps the most dismal moment came when the field turned for home in the final race of a Breeders' Cup staged with all those painstaking protocols. Just as the veterinary team must have been turning to each other to exchange high fives, the Mongolian Groom tragedy brought the vultures back overhead.

The transformation then already underway, however, has since proved quite incredible. The marathon winter-spring meet just concluded at Santa Anita did not feature a single musculoskeletal racing fatality on the main track, with just three in all from 4,800 starters. Right now this is operating as the safest high-volume racetrack in the land. I've no idea how the credit should be distributed, between Belinda Stronach, track superintendent Dennis Moore, and many others in between. But I do know that our community owes them a debt of gratitude; and also that there are a couple of ways of discharging it.

One, as we approach the deadline for HISA registration, is for everyone to acknowledge the bigger picture. Purposeful regulation should not be resented as draconian intrusion, but embraced as essential to the sustainability of our way of life. Remember it's not just horsemen who are making short-term sacrifices for longer-term gain. The stringent policing of medication, now so conspicuous in California, incidentally exacerbates what has come to feel like a chronic local deficiency, in field sizes. But where some racetracks in other states are prepared to turn a blind eye, in order to fill stalls and fields, here they appear willing to grasp a few nettles.

And that brings me to the other way we can repay California. Yes, the big investors now have lucrative opportunity virtually year-round in and around Kentucky, while for many Saratoga is just up the road from their Wall Street lairs. But somebody out there, surely, won't be averse to spreading a few good horses back west. California has a beautiful climate, after all; quite a few beautiful people, and not always just skin deep; perhaps the most beautiful racetrack in the world; and, importantly, Hall of Fame-eligible trainers like John Shirreffs who are only going to thrive on a level playing field.

When it was all going wrong, there seemed to be something apt about the fact that Santa Anita should be sited in the suburb of Arcadia, named for the pastoral idyll of the ancient Greeks. In many traditions, notably that of Eden, these places are poignantly unattainable owing to the culpability of humankind. Marvelously, however, our community has proved to contain men and women to lead us back along the stony path of redemption.

Or perhaps that should be the Ethereal Road of redemption? I always had a hunch that this son of Quality Road might take an unexpected role in the Triple Crown, but not in the way he did–stepping aside from the Derby at the 11th hour, creating a vacancy for a winner who has since remained curiously resistant to the assistance of hindsight. In the event, Ethereal Road was confined to an appearance on the Preakness undercard, where he suggested that he might yet join barnmate Secret Oath (Arrogate) in the top tier of the crop. Having again been scratched from the third leg of the series, with a quarter crack, he instead resurfaces in the GIII Ohio Derby on Saturday. If he can confirm that he is now really beginning to blossom, we may yet extend our reach to a wider public through a trainer who, just like California, has persevered through dark times with an undiminished faith that we have a story worth telling.

Don't forget the way Gosling's character calls after to his sister, as she leaves his apartment in despair over his “rope-a-dope” line. “I'm a phoenix rising from the ashes!”

Wayne Lukas has done it; Santa Anita is doing it. See you at the jazz club.

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Where Are They Now: Zenyatta’s Sons, Cozmic One and Ziconic

In this new TDN column, Christie DeBernardis will tell the stories of popular and/or accomplished former racehorses who are now enjoying second careers as show horses, track ponies, etc.

The first two foals out of the mighty Zenyatta, Cozmic One (Bernardini) and Ziconic (Tapit), never reached the winner's circle during their brief careers on the racetrack, but they are both thriving in their second careers as jumpers and ambassadors for off-track Thoroughbreds.

The elder brother, Cozmic One's second career has been well documented in these pages (Cozmic One: Shining New Light on OTTBs and Checking in on Cozmic One) in the past, but we checked in with Hidden Brook Farm's Sergio de Sousa and his daughter Isabela for the latest update.

When Cozmic One first came to the de Sousas, he was Isabela's charge. An accomplished equestrian, Isabela was consistently in the blue ribbons with her OTTBs at the annual Thoroughbred Makeover, which was her first goal with “Coz” back in 2018.

When Isabela started traveling to pursue her career as a professional equestrian, Sergio took over the reins on Cozmic One. The two have been competing in jumper shows, focusing on the Take2 program, which partners with United States Equestrian Federation-rated horse shows that offer C-rated Thoroughbred hunter and jumper divisions, which are restricted to Thoroughbreds registered with The Jockey Club. They will also be competing in the Real Rider Cup for the second time this year in their new Kentucky-based event July 9.

“Isabela is around this summer, so if she wants to jump him she can, but he is basically my fun horse now,” Sergio said. “I just want to continue having fun with him and doing things like the Real Rider Cup. We did the .85 [meter jumpers] last week at the [Kentucky] Horse Park. I hope to qualify for the Take2 finals with him at the Horse Park in September.”

Cozmic One is now 10, which is considered old for a racehorse, but is the prime age for show horses.

“He has really matured,” Sergio said. “He is a much stronger horse now and I have improved my riding. We are just having fun and enjoying each other.”

“Coz is doing great and him and my dad are developing a lovely partnership,” Isabela added. “They both are learning from one another and are enjoying themselves while doing it.”

Ziconic & Sarah Pollock | Told By Film

While Cozmic One is enjoying the lush Kentucky bluegrass, his year-younger half-brother Ziconic remained on the West Coast when he left trainer John Shirreffs's barn three years ago. He was placed under the care of Linda Moss and her husband George Bedar, who already had a former Shirreffs trainee campaigned by Zenyatta's owners, Jerome and Ann Holbrook Moss, in her barn in Milyone (Maria's Mon).

Linda Moss became friends with Ann Holbrook Moss and Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs back in 2011 when she honored Zenyatta at a local conference for women in business.

“I am a board advisor to the Professional Business Women of California and we have a conference every year,” Moss explained. “The theme for our conference in 2011 was connect, explore, inspire and I was responsible for producing the inspire section. I wanted a special woman to represent the inspired section and I chose Zenyatta to do that.”

The next thing Moss did was head to Hollywood Park to meet the queen herself.

“Shortly after the conference, I went down to the track and met Zenyatta,” said Moss, who had owned Arabs in the past, but always loved Thoroughbreds. “My older Thoroughbred Milyone was there, about three stalls down from Zenyatta. He just kept calling out to me as I was walking down the barn aisle. When I went up to his stall, he just put his head in my neck. John said, 'He has never done that with anyone before.' I jokingly said, 'Well if he ever needs a home, he has one.' A year and a half later, Dottie called me and said, 'Do you still want Milyone?'”

Of course, Moss said yes. Then, in June of 2019, she received another call from Ingordo-Shirreffs.

“When Ziconic was ready to be retired, Dottie called me and said John and I feel he should go to you,” Moss said. “We talked about it and that is how we got him exactly three years ago.”

According to Moss, Ziconic is well aware of his royal heritage and enjoys the attention that comes along with it.

“Ziconic is the type of horse who knows who he is and likes to be treated special,” she said. “He is extremely proud. He is probably the smartest horse I have ever been around. He is also very playful and loves an audience.”

Moss said Ziconic has taken to off-track life very well. He started his retraining as a jumper with trainer Sarah Pollock and the pair even won their first show together back in 2020. Unfortunately, Ziconic's show schedule was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and an EHV outbreak in the state of California.

“He is really enjoying his off-track life,” Moss said. “We give him a lot of diversity. He is kind of the king of the farm he is at right now, Eclipse Equine Sports Therapy Center in the Santa Ynez Valley. He was originally at a sporthorse farm, training with an amazing trainer, Sarah Pollock. She did an amazing job transitioning him.”

She continued, “He really loves to jump and be in the arena, getting all the cheers and being photographed. It has been a very inconsistent show career for him because of COVID and the EHV outbreak. We gave him the winter off. He is back in a jumping program now with the goal of showing in the fall jumping circuit. We will probably start him back at the .80 or .85 [meter], but he was jumping a meter previously.”

Under the care of Moss and the de Sousas, both of Zenyatta's boys have found their callings. They have taken the athletic ability and winning attitude they inherited from their superstar dam to new venues, shining a brighter spotlight on off-track Thoroughbreds everywhere in the process.

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Straight Fire Making Waves in California

With just 26 named foals in his first crop, 'TDN Rising Star' Straight Fire (Dominus – Tricky Indy, by A.P. Indy) is reeling off some impressive statistics as his young stock are making waves in California.

Last year, the son of Dominus based at Legacy Ranch produced 10 winners from 13 runners with his first crop of 2-year-olds. So far in 2022, he has had six winners from 10 runners including dual stakes winner Straight Up G and also a pair of sophomores that swept the California-bred stakes on the Santa Anita Derby undercard earlier this month. Power Surge won the Evening Jewel S. and Smuggler's Run took the Echo Eddie S. while another son of Straight Fire, What in Blazes, finished third in the Echo Eddie.

Straight Fire's three stakes winners already this year rank the sire first among North American second-crop sires by stakes winners from named foals. Among the same group of sires, he also ranks first by stakes winners from runners at 30% and is second only to Gun Runner with his average earnings of over $50,000 per starter.

Bred by Spendthrift Farm, Straight Fire was a $250,000 yearling purchase by Solis and Litt Bloodstock at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton July Sale. He was sent to Eddie Woods and showed promise from the start.

“We thought he was special,” Jason Litt recalled. “The horse always had a great attitude. He loved to train and was easy to be around. When we got him to the track, he was tremendously fast and naturally precocious.”

As a juvenile, the colt broke his maiden second time out at Del Mar by 10 ½ lengths to earn his 'Rising Star' badge. He was then second to MGSW Klimt (Quality Road) in the GI Del Mar Futurity and ran third in the GI FrontRunner S. While he suffered a career-ending injury and was unable to return to the starting gate as a 3-year-old, his connections were so impressed by his juvenile campaign that they pursued a stallion career for their precocious bay.

Straight Fire began his stallion career at Legacy Ranch in 2018 for a group of shareholders that included Legacy Ranch, Jim Rome's Jungle Racing, LNJ Foxwoods, Kim and Kevin Nish's KMN Racing, Andrew Molasky, Rigney Racing, Equine Analysis and Solis/Litt Bloodstock. In his first two years at stud, the stallion was solely supported by his shareholders and bred a total of 66 mares.

This year will look quite different for the stallion. After the success of his juveniles, Straight Fire's stud fee was increased from $3,500 to $7,500, but he already has 60 mares on his book this year coming in from an array of outside breeders.

Straight Fire's first crop did not see the sales ring as they were yearlings in 2020 so the owners opted to race them themselves to avoid the uncertain market during COVID. From Straight Fire's second crop of 20 foals, five yearlings saw the sales ring last year to average nearly $50,000. This year he was represented by a 2-year-old colt that delivered the fastest one-furlong breeze of the Texas 2-Year-Old in Training Sale and later sold for $80,000.

Litt explained that when they first launched Straight Fire's stud career, their goal was to produce quality runners for the lucrative 2-year-olds races at Del Mar. Now that the first crop has surpassed shareholders' original expectations as 2-year-olds, Litt said he believes there could be more to come this year for the stallion as his first crop continues to develop and his second crop hits the racetrack.

Power Surge claims the 2022 Evening Jewel S. | Benoit

“His offspring are like him in that they have great minds, they love to train and they have tremendous natural speed,” he said. “If you watch their races, they instantly break on top naturally. It's one thing to get one good runner, but when there are five or six from a small crop that you're happy with, that's fun.”

Power Surge, winner of the Evening Jewel S., was part of the first crop that was sent to the racetrack rather than the sales ring. She was started by Susan Montanye of SBM Training, who broke several Straight Fire progeny for LNJ Foxwoods and their partners.

“She was very cool,” Montanye recalled. “She was very easy and always had a lot of game. That's how all of the Straight Fires have been for me. Every time you ask them to do something, they always said yes and they are wanting to do more. They seem to be forward, early horses.”

The filly was sent to trainer Blaine Wright in California along with several other Straight Fire progeny.

“From early on we thought Power Surge was one of the best ones I had in my possession,” Wright recalled. “She was very precocious and has never done a thing wrong. I've pretty much had Straight Fire fillies up to this point, but the horse throws good bone and they're good-minded and tenacious.”

Power Surge broke her maiden at second asking as a juvenile last year. Since then, she has placed in all but one of her five career starts.

“As she has gotten more races into her, she has leveled out as a racehorse,” Wright explained. “Now she can turn it off pretty easy when you ask her in the morning and turn it back on when you want her to. She has ran well on synthetic, but she showed a different level on dirt in the stakes race. After watching her gallop out after that race, it looks like she might get up to a mile. She posted good fractions and did everything the right way.”

Power Surge will be the first horse of racing age by Straight Fire offered at auction when she sells as Hip 22 this week at the Fasig-Tipton April Digital Selected Sale, which closes Tuesday, April 26 at 2 p.m. Litt explained that because the original intention was to sell Straight Fire's first crop, Power Surge's connections believe that now is the prime time to offer the filly after her stakes victory.

Wright believes the possibilities are endless with Power Surge for the remainder of her sophomore campaign and beyond.

“A filly like her, I think you could probably run her on any surface,” he said. “One thing you can't put into them is a racehorse, and she's got it.”

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