Hejazi, Baffert's $3.55 million colt, breaks maiden at Santa Anita

Hejazi, the $3.55 million colt who went 0-for-4 last year, graduated Sunday in a Santa Anita maiden special weight at 6 1/2 furlongs.

The 3-year-old Bernardini colt, trained by Bob Baffert and owned by Zedan Racing Stables, broke a step slow from the rail post before moving to the lead and keeping it to win by 1 1/4 lengths under hand urging by jockey Mike Smith.

Sent off the favorite at 1-2 odds, he paid $3.00, $2.20 and $2.10. Baffert's other contender in the race, Worcester, finished second.

The winning time was 1:14.58, with fractions of 21.97, 44.28 and 1:08.41.

Hejazi placed second as the favorite in his first two starts, each a 5 1/2-furlong, $80,000 maiden race last summer at Del Mar. His second race, a loss to stablemate Speed Boat Beach, still earned Hejazi a 100 Beyer Speed Figure, according to Daily Racing Form.

Hejazi jumped into Grade 1 company Oct. 8, when he finished a distant third to stablemate Cave Rock in the 1 1/16-mile American Pharoah (G1) at Santa Anita. Mike Smith rode Hejazi in all three of those races.

“We gave him some time, gave him a chance to re-boot,” Baffert told the Santa Anita media team. “We wanted to get some weight back on him. We put him through a pretty ambitious (three-race sequence). … He’s got his weight back on and Mike got him to relax a little bit. Today was the day. Once I saw him out there cruising … we’re gonna have fun with him.”