Bob Baffert, Frankie Dettori have banner day at Santa Anita
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and international superstar jockey Frankie Dettori added yet another chapter to their famed careers Sunday at Santa Anita.
Baffert and Dettori combined forces to win both the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap with Newgate and the San Felipe (G2) with the 3-year-old colt Imagination. Baffert also scored in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile (G1) with Du Jour, which was Baffert’s first Grade 1 turf win since the 2009 Del Mar Oaks with Internallyflawless.
“I’m just glad they all showed up. They all ran hard,” Baffert said Monday morning.
Dettori’s first win in the historic Big 'Cap and first victory in the San Felipe both came by a head. In the 1 1/4-mile Big 'Cap, Dettori rallied Newgate just in time to edge Subsanador. In the San Felipe, Dettori had to call on all his skills to prevail.
Imagination was knocked sideways during a scramble on the first turn, then the Into Mischief colt “took off” down the backstretch, as Baffert described it. The 53-year-old Dettori eventually got Imagination to come to hand on the second turn. They then outdueled stablemate Wine Me Up to the wire to win by a head.
“Frankie is incredible,” Baffert said. “What he’s done in Europe, then to come here and adapt to dirt racing like he has. He basically tells you, ‘If you have them ready, don’t worry about it.’ I like that. That’s his confidence level.”
Newgate earned his first Grade 1 win in the Big 'Cap. For Baffert, 71, it was his sixth Big 'Cap victory and first since 2014 with Game on Dude.
“It doesn’t seem that long ago,” Baffert said. “Time flies.”
Newgate, a 4-year-old Into Mischief colt, upped his record to 9: 3-4-0 with $535,775 in earnings for an extensive ownership group that includes SF Racing, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables. His only other graded-stakes win came under Dettori in last year’s Robert B. Lewis (G3) at Santa Anita.
“Newgate has been getting better and better,” Baffert said. “He’s a big horse with lots of flesh. I think he’ll continue to improve with racing. He’s not there yet, but he’s getting close.”
Imagination, who has a similar ownership group as Newgate, was making his stakes debut in the San Felipe. Purchased for $1.05 million as a yearling, he graduated in his third start when going a mile at Santa Anita on Jan. 1. He then came back in an entry-level allowance also at a mile and lost by a neck to highly regarded stablemate Maymun here Feb. 11.
“We always thought he was a really quality horse,” Baffert said of Imagination, who is out of the Empire Maker mare Magical Feeling. “He’s bred to get better as he gets older. The races have helped him. I think he might not need blinkers. I didn’t like the way he didn’t settle down the backside.”
Du Jour became racing’s newest millionaire with his first Grade 1 win under Flavien Prat. It was his first start since a 10th-place effort in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
“He’s a nice horse but a tough horse. He’s not friendly,” Baffert said. “He went sour last year and I turned him out. I took my time with him. He’s just starting to show some maturity.”
Du Jour is a 6-year-old gelding by Temple City owned in partnership by Baffert’s wife, Jill, and Debbie Lanni. In last year’s Kilroe Mile, Du Jour was beaten by a neck by Gold Phoenix. His record stands at 17: 6-3-2 with $1,118,220 in earnings.