Baffert: ‘Tactics were wrong’ on Collected, who’s back to work

A week and a day after defeated in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes, Collected returned to the work tab in style, clocking a bullet five furlongs in 59 seconds at Santa Anita Park toward the 2018 Pegasus World Cup.

The drill seemed to confirm at least two things: that the Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up still remains a Pegasus threat, and that this horse isn’t made to close.

“The tactics were wrong,” trainer Bob Baffert told the Daily Racing Form of the San Antonio.

Jockey Mike Smith, riding Collected for the first time, blamed an early slip for positioning at the rear of the field entering the back stretch. Still, it appeared connections were looking for a different trip than we’re used to seeing from the front-runner.

Giant Expectations took them all the way around to convince his own connections to try the Pegasus as Collected, a son of City Zip, ran on for third.

Collected beat his workmate, Cat Burglar, in Wednesday’s drill by 3/5 of a second.

Also on the tab Wednesday was West Coast, another trained by Baffert who went six furlongs in 1:12, soundly beating his workmate, Power Cat, who was 1 3/4 seconds slower. West Coast was third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar.