Heels Up | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bob Baffert's well accomplished Kalypso heads a field of five sophomore fillies going a mile and one sixteenth in Sunday's Grade 3, $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita. Baffert will also be represented by Baoma Corporation's Beautiful Gift as well as Pegram, Watson and Weitman's Heels Up in a race that Baffert has won a record five times.

With 50 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to be awarded to the winner, the Santa Ynez takes on added significance as America's biggest race for 3-year-old fillies looms on April 30 at Churchill Downs. Saturday's second, third and fourth place finishers will receive 20, 15 and five points respectively.

Third, beaten 1 ¾ lengths by Kalypso in the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes here on Feb. 6, trainer Michael McCarthy's Moraz will likely go as the second choice in the Santa Ysabel, which will be her fourth career start. A recent mile and one sixteenth maiden winner at Golden Gate Fields, McCarthy's A Real Hero will be a longshot with Flavien Prat aboard.

Owned by David Bernsen, LLC and Rockingham Ranch, Kalyspo, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Brody's Cause, out of the Malibu Moon mare Malibu Cove, broke her maiden going six furlongs four starts back in the ungraded Anoakia Stakes on Oct. 18 and then showed the way prior to running second, beaten 1 ½ lengths going 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos Dec. 5.

Off at 4-5 in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes going seven furlongs on Jan. 3, Kalypso pressed the pace and prevailed by 1 ¾ lengths. Subsequently second as the even money favorite going one mile in the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes on Feb. 6, she was no match for Richard Mandella's Moonlight d'Oro, who rallied powerfully through the lane to prevail by 1 ½ lengths.

Although second twice at two turns, Kalypso, who will be making her seventh start, retains the services of Joel Rosario and is strictly the horse to beat on Sunday.

Owned by her breeder, Don Alberto Corporation, Moraz, who was a dazzling 11 length maiden winner going a flat mile two starts back on Jan. 8, kept to her task in the Las Virgenes when beaten 1 ¾ lengths by the top selection and her connections are hoping she has enough upside to turn the tables.

By Empire Maker out of the A.P. Indy mare Malvinia, Moraz will be making her fourth start and be handled by regular rider Umberto Rispoli.

Bet down to 3-5 as she stretched out to a flat mile in her second start on Oct. 23, Baoma Corporation's homebred Beautiful Gift stalked the early pace and rallied gamely for a half length win. By Medaglia d'Oro out of the A.P. Indy mare Sea Gift, Beautiful Gift also appears to have ample upside and will be ridden for the first time by John Velazquez.

Baffert's Heels Up, who has been idle since running third in the 6 ½ furlongs Dezi Arnaz Stakes Nov. 14 at Del Mar, will be stretching out for the first time in what will be her fourth start. Owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, Heels Up, a daughter of Twirling Candy out of the Tale of the Cat mare Tale Untold, will likely be forwardly placed under Drayden Van Dyke, who will be aboard for the first time.

THE GRADE 3 SANTA YSABEL WITH JOCKEYS & WEIGHTS IN POST POSITION ORDER

Race 4 of 9 Approximate post time 2 p.m. PT

A Real Hero—Flavien Prat—120
Beautiful Gift—John Velazquez—120
Heels Up—Drayden Van Dyke—120
Kalypso—Joel Rosario—120
Moraz—Umberto Rispoli—120

First post time for a nine-race card on Sunday is at 12:30 p.m. All of Santa Anita's races are offered free of charge at santaanita.com/live and fans can wager at 1st.com/bet. For additional information, please visit santaanita.com or call (626) 574-RACE.

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Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is scheduled to send out 9-5 morning line favorite Private Mission and two other 2-year-old fillies in a field of eight for Saturday's $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes and 6-5 favorite Spielberg to face five 2-year-old male rivals in Sunday's Grade III, $100,000 Bob Hope this weekend at Del Mar.

Baffert increased his Breeders' Cup victory total to 17 last Saturday with the wins by Gamine in the $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint and the 1-2 finish of Authentic and Improbable in the $6 million Classic at Keeneland. He then spent a day or two saying good bye to Authentic, Improbable and Pacific Classic winner Maximum Security – fifth in the Breeders' Cup Classic – as they went off to Lexington, KY., area farms where they'll stand stud.

Authentic went to Spendthrift, Improbable to Winstar and Maximum Security to Ashford Stud.

Three's a crowd, even for Baffert, but seeing horses of great accomplishment off to second careers is a part of racing's annual cycle.

“You don't want to see them go, but we have more good horses around. I have great clients (who provide),” Baffert said this morning from Santa Anita. “You can't think about the past too much, you look ahead.”

Baffert has older horses like Mucho Gusto and Roadster to look forward to campaigning in 2021 and it will be no surprise to anyone who has followed racing to any degree recently if a heretofore unknown soon-to-be 3-year-old emerges from the shedrow as a major Kentucky Derby contender. (Especially if the Derby is held on the first Saturday in May again).

Of immediate concern to Baffert, however, are the upcoming stakes here. Having returned from Kentucky and undergone 72 hours of isolation before returning to work at Santa Anita, he'll be making his first Crosby season appearance here on Saturday.

In addition to Private Mission, an Into Mischief filly, Baffert has Varda (6-1) and Heels Up (8-1) to look after in the Desi Arnaz. Private Mission and Varda were both $750,000 auction purchases. Heels Up sold for $350,000.

“They're all winners, and it's not easy to win races out here,” Baffert said. “They're all training well, but it could be a tough race. Looks like Richard Mandella (Astute, 3-1) and John Sadler (Queengol, 4-1) have some good ones in there.”

Speilberg, a $1 million purchase a year ago, will be coming back two weeks after breaking his maiden in his fourth career start – two of them against Grade I competition. Baffert has saddled the winner four times in six runnings of the Hope, the initial graded stakes of the Crosby meeting. Spielberg, a son of Union Rags, will be shortened to seven furlongs and put on the same course where he finished second, 1 ¾ lengths behind Dr. Schivel, in the Del Mar Futurity on September 7.

“He came out of the last one very well and the seven-eighths should be OK for him,” Baffert said. “And he runs well at Del Mar.”

Spielberg has the maiden win and two runner-up finishes last summer on his record here.

The field from the rail for Saturday's Desi Arnaz: Plum Sexy (Heriberto Figueroa, 12-1); Private Mission (Drayden Van Dyke); Canoodling (Umberto Rispoli, 12-1); Varda (Abel Cedillo); Queengol (Juan Hernandez); Miss Costa Rica (Flavien Prat, 10-1); Astute (Mike Smith), and Heels Up (Victor Espinoza).

The field from the rail for Sunday's Bob Hope: Ambivalent (Mario Gutierrez, 7-2); Spielberg (Cedillo, 6-5); Weston (Van Dyke, 3-1); Coastal Kid (Tyler Baze, 15-1); Red Flag (Espinoza, 6-1), and Uncle Boogie (Prat, 5-1).

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