Baffert saddles Collected, Cat Burglar in Precisionist

Bob Baffert has the 4-5 morning line favorite (Collected) and the 9-2 third choice (Cat Burglar) in Saturday’s Grade III Precisionist Stakes for three-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles, but the Hall of Fame trainer is not taking the race lightly.

“It’s a tough race,” Baffert said. “We’ll see how they stack up . . . It’s very competitive, so we’ll see what’s going on. I’d like to try Collected on turf, though.”

The breeding is there, and the son of City Zip did break his maiden on grass, winning by a nose on Santa Anita’s downhill course at about 6 ½ furlongs Oct. 12, 2015. He won the Grade III Cecil B. DeMille at a mile on turf in his next start, Nov. 29, 2015, at Del Mar.

Collected, a four-year-old colt owned by Speedway Racing LLC, has won six of nine career starts including the Grade II Californian last out on April 22.

Cat Burglar, a seven-year-old full horse by the same sire as Horse of the World Arrogate, Unbridled’s Song, won an overnight race on March 31, his first start in 11 months. He won the Santana Mile in April of 2016.

Accelerate, a gem of consistency in 10 starts for John Sadler with three wins, three seconds, three thirds and one fourth, is on point for the Precisionist.

“He’s very consistent and he’s doing well for this race,” Sadler said. “He’s had high quality form every time and we’re expecting a big effort from him on Saturday.”

Like Baffert, Doug O’Neill has two horses entered in the Precisionist, Donworth and Keane, the latter an Argentine-bred making his U.S. debut.

A five-year-old full horse, Keane last raced Nov. 19, 2016, at La Plata in Argentina, winning his fourth straight race, going a mile and a half on the main track under 131 pounds.

“We’ve had him since late February,” said Leandro Mora, assistant to O’Neill, who trains Keane for Zedan Racing Stables, Inc. “He came to us with the purpose of training him and taking him to the Dubai World Cup (last March), but thank God we didn’t go, because Arrogate would’ve kicked our butt.

“It looks like he’s acclimated pretty well. If he runs the way he’s been feeling these last two weeks, we’re going to have some fun.”

The field for the Precisionist, which is named for the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Sprint champion trained by Ross Fenstermaker: Donworth, Mario Gutierrez, 6-1; Keane, Tiago Pereira, 8-1; Accelerate, Tyler Baze, 5-2; Collected, Martin Garcia, 4-5; and Cat Burglar, Rafael Bejarano, 9-2.