Baze Keen on Warren's Veneda for Vanity

Tyler Baze felt he had a good thing going with Warren’s Veneda when he rode her to her first win over two years ago.

It came in a stakes race.

Baze piloted the California-bred daughter of Affirmative to a 1 ¾-length victory in her second career start, the Alphabet Soup Stakes for state-breds at Hollywood on April 27, 2013.

Since then, the 32-year-old Seattle native has ridden her seven times, winning four, the last three in a row, including the Grade I Santa Margarita Stakes on March 14 for Craig Lewis, who trains the stretch-running chestnut mare for owner/breeder Benjamin Warren.

Next up: Saturday’s Grade I, $300,000 Vanity Stakes for fillies and mares, three and up, at 1 1/8 miles, a race in which two-time Eclipse champ Beholder was entered, but will not run.

“She had a temperature this morning and had a high white blood count,” trainer Richard Mandella said Thursday. “She’s on antibiotics and out of the race.’

It might have been four straight wins for Warren’s Veneda but Baze was beaten a head by Tiz Midnight in the Grade II Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos last Dec. 6.

“She was a little unlucky at Los Alamitos, but she’s done everything so easy this year,

just playing around and having fun, just happy really,” Baze said. “Craig’s been keeping her happy. She’s loving what she’s doing.

“In all three of the wins, I got down to ride her a little bit, but she’s had her ears pricked forward having fun. She’s doing great now and I expect her to run huge.”

The field for the Vanity, race five of nine: Warren’s Veneda, Tyler Baze; Gas Total, Flavien Prat; My Sweet Addiction, Mike Smith; and Legacy, Martin Garcia.

Source: Santa Anita Park