Zipse: 1 Ky. Derby hopeful, 2 classic winners, 1 special dam

Puca is one special broodmare.

Journalism deserves all the accolades as the winner Sunday of the Santa Anita Derby. He overcame a tough trip to fly down the stretch on his way to Churchill Downs as a deserving favorite for this year’s Kentucky Derby, but I want to talk about the runner-up.

Baeza ran huge in defeat in his stakes debut on Saturday to be way ahead of the rest in the Grade 1 race. As a son of Puca, I guess it should be no surprise that Baeza is a serious racehorse.

Journalism asserts Ky. Derby favoritism in Saturday win.

In races Puca was good. Campaigned by Donegal Racing, she won a minor stakes race, finished second in the Gazelle (G2) and made it into the starting gate of both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Kentucky Oaks (G1).

It’s as a broodmare, however, where the 13-year-old daughter of Big Brown truly has found her calling.

To date Puca has had four foals old enough to make it to the races, and they are all stakes horses. The first was a Gun Runner filly. Gunning won three of her nine career starts and was stakes-placed at Oaklawn and Ellis Park. It only gets better from there.

Her second foal was Mage. A son of Good Magic, he finished second to juvenile champion Forte in the Florida Derby (G1) in his third career start. His fourth was a resounding victory in the 2023 Kentucky Derby. He also finished third in the Preakness Stakes and second in the Haskell (G1) before an injury ended his career early.

His full brother may have been even better. An ultra-game winner over future champion Sierra Leone in the Remsen Stakes (G2) as a juvenile, Dornoch came back in 2024 to win the Belmont Stakes, Haskell and Fountain of Youth (G2).

Between Mage’s win in the Kentucky Derby and Dornoch’s victory in the Remsen, the fourth foal of Puca fetched serious money at the 2023 Keeneland September yearling sale. A son of McKinzie, the good-looking colt sold for $1.2 million.

Owned by C R K Stable and trained by John Shirreffs, Baeza first made it to the races in a Del Mar maiden race on the grass Dec. 1 for his patient conditioner. A troubled trip cost him any chance, and the high-priced colt checked in ninth.

Transitioned to the main track five weeks later for his second start, Baeza took to the dirt and finished second in a fast, one-mile, maiden race at Santa Anita. The result was flattered on Saturday when the winner Rodriguez scored a big victory in the Wood Memorial (G2) at Aqueduct.

Baeza broke his maiden in his third start when he easily beat maidens by 4 3/4 lengths in mid-February. The victory was enough for Shirreffs to move him up in class and take a shot in the historic Santa Anita Derby.

A huge workout going six furlongs in 1:10.4 one month after his maiden win tipped off the further improvement of Baeza. Sure enough, the well-bred colt proved he belongs in Grade 1 company with an outstanding effort against the current Kentucky Derby favorite as well as last year’s juvenile champion Citizen Bull.

Baeza was only second best in the Santa Anita Derby, but it was an excellent stakes debut for a colt getting better with each start. He finished more than eight lengths ahead of the third-place finisher.

Even before Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby, the stock of Puca has continued to skyrocket. She has been sold three times since her retirement from racing. First going for $275,000 at the 2017 Keeneland November breeding-stock sale, then for $475,000 one year later and most recently for $2.9 million to John Stewart's Resolute Racing in 2023.

Bred back to Good Magic twice more, Puca has a yearling colt who is a full-brother to Mage and Dornoch and is currently carrying their full-sister.

With the exploits of Mage in the Kentucky Derby and Dornoch in the Belmont Stakes the past two seasons, Puca joined Weekend Surprise and Better Than Honour to become only the third broodmare in modern racing to produce two American classic winners.

How does this sound for a hunch bet? Baeza misses out on this year’s Kentucky Derby due to a shortage of qualifying points but then goes on to win the Preakness to give his dam an unthinkable triple.

It’s Puca’s world. We’re just living in it.