Del Mar: Baffert returns Reincarnate to turf in Cougar II

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will try again to make a turf winner out of Reincarnate, the class of a six-horse field Thursday in the Grade 3 Cougar II Stakes for open company at Del Mar.

A two-time stakes winner, the $775,000 Good Magic colt owned by the SF Racing partnership will be ridden as usual by Juan Hernández. Now 4, Reincarnate is best known as the winner of the 2023 Sham (G3) on his way to a 13th-place finish for his stand-in trainer Tim Yakteen in the Kentucky Derby.

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Second last out May 27 in the Hollywood Gold Cup (G2) on Santa Anita’s main track, Reincarnate started his career with a pair of second-place finishes in one-mile turf races at Del Mar and Santa Anita. Baffert then shifted him to the dirt, interrupting that run only last fall for a troubled, ninth-place result in the Twilight Derby (G2), 1 1/8-mile grass stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard at Santa Anita.

Winless in five starts since last July’s running of the Los Alamitos Derby, Reincarnate is 14: 3-4-3 with earnings of $587,900. He and Hernández will break Thursday from post 3.

Salesman, who won the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (G2) on dirt one race before Reincarnate’s Twilight Derby loss, is the only other stakes winner in the Cougar II field. The 7-year-old Dubawi gelding is a Wertheimer et Frere homebred who has not raced since he finished last in the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) on March 3.

Trained by Richard Mandella, Ireland-bred Salesman returns to his turf roots for the first time since he came in 12th of 13 last July in the Wickerr covering the same course and distance as the Cougar II. He was raced early in his career in France, where he went 17: 2-4-4 on the turf.

Kazushi Kimura replaces Flavien Prat and rides from post 4 on Salesman, who is 27: 4-6-5 with $334,820 in earnings.

The rest of the Cougar II field includes Calm Sea, a 4-year-old gelding who brings in back-to-back allowance wins on turf; Midnight Mammoth, a 5-year-old gelding who has won consecutive dirt allowance races; Dual Threat, a 5-year-old gelding who will end a two-month break since he won a Santa Anita dirt allowance; and Clooney, a 4-year-old gelding claimed twice last year who returns to the turf after a runner-up finish in a Santa Anita allowance race last month.

The Cougar II is the seventh of eight races Thursday, and it is scheduled to go after 8 p.m. EDT.