Baffert gears up 3-year-old stars for Santa Anita stakes

Trainer Bob Baffert is gearing his stable up for a big opening day at Santa Anita Park as the Dec. 26 races near.

Baffert, in an interview Monday on Steve Byk’s “At the Races” radio show, laid out plans for a number of his returning 3-year-old runners:

• Dream Tree, the unbeaten Phoenix Thoroughbreds runner, missed the Breeders’ Cup when she exited a final work with an epiglottic entrapment. The daughter of Uncle Mo was subsequently removed from Keeneland’s November sale and has breezed consistently to continue campaigning with Baffert in the Grade 1, $300,000 La Brea Stakes at seven furlongs.

Dream Tree last raced in Saratoga’s Prioress back on Sept. 2.

“We’re getting her going,” Baffert told Byk.

He said he’ll have a second runner, Emboldened, in the race for Godolphin. The homebred by Elusive Quality won Santa Anita’s $75,000 Angels Flight Stakes May 12 in her most-recent start.

• Solomini, who has made one start since the Kentucky Derby, will shorten up in what’s shaping up to be a memorable running of the Grade 1, $300,000 Malibu Stakes. Also at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds, the race is expected to attract Axelrod, Copper Bullet and Kanthaka, among others.

“He’s doing really well,” Baffert said of Solomini, who left the barn after running third in Santa Anita’s Affirmed Stakes (G3) on June 10. “He’s been training pretty well — not so erratic as before. I think the freshening helped him.”

Nero, a come-back allowance winner for Baffert, could also appear in the Malibu.

• Baffert has multiple Grade 1 winner McKinzie back to work after he finished 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, with the 3-year-old son of Street Sense having breezed five furlongs Monday in 59.20 seconds in his third drill since the Classic.

“He looks fantastic,” Baffert said. “He wasn’t ready for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. I should have run him in the (Dirt) Mile. The Classic didn’t seem like it was that strong of a — there was not like a heavy duty cast in there, and I thought maybe he could get a piece of it.

“It was too much for him.”

The Grade 2, $300,000 San Antonio Stakes also runs Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. Baffert last year used the 1 1/16-mile race as a prep for Collected’s run at the Pegasus World Cup (G1).

Also expected in this year's San Antonio are Battle of Midway, who could go on to the Pegasus, and Gift Box, formerly trained by Chad Brown, who will make his first start for John Sadler.