Intrépido upsets the Bafferts to capture American Pharoah

Intrépido and jockey Héctor Berrios surged past odds-favorite Desert Gate in the final strides and prevailed over a field which included four Bob Baffert colts in Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita.

With the win, Intrépido earned a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Oct. 31 at Del Mar.

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Trained by Jeff Mullins, Intrépido (8-1) broke right with the field but then took a position stalking the pace while saving ground along the rail. Desert Gate, the 4-5 favorite trained by Baffert, went to the lead with stablemate Kristofferson (9-5) pressing on his outside up the backstretch. Desert Gate, who never had raced around two turns, went the opening quarter-mile in 22.83 and a half-mile in 46.76 seconds.

Desert Gate continued to lead while receiving pressure through six furlongs in 1:10.97. Near the quarter pole Intrépido still was surrounded by horses, and Berrios appeared to stand up briefly in the irons when running up on the heels.

“It was a bit of a complicated race,” Berrios said. “I tried to go to the front, but I saw Juan (Hernández on Desert Gate) break first, so I settled into second. From the first turn, I had to ease back a little, and then again around (the three-eighths pole), I had to hold.”

Intrépido finally got out for racing room at the head of the stretch while Desert Gate faced a fresh challenge on his inside from another Baffert runner, Plutarch (8-1). Desert Gate never let Plutarch, but rolling on the outside came Intrépido, who surged to the front in the final strides and won by three-quarters of a length.

“When I made my move to the outside, he responded, although not very strongly at first,” said Berrios, 38, a native of Santiago, Chile. “When I asked him again, he responded and produced an impressive change of pace. He flew down the stretch. He’s an amazing horse.”

Intrépido won at a time of 1:43.67 on the fast main track for owners Dutch Girl Holdings and Irving Ventures. A ridgling by Maximus Mischief, Intrépido cost $385,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales auctin of 2-year-olds in training.

Intrépido was fourth on debut going 5 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar on July 26. Stretched to a mile for his second start, Intrépido dragged Berrios to the lead and drew off in the stretch to win by 3 1/4 lengths.

“We weren’t quite sure what was in his head this time around,” Mullins said. “(In his last start) he broke, took the lead by himself, and Héctor just went with him. Everything worked out fine, but we knew if we went to the lead today, we were going to get into a dogfight, and that was one thing I was trying hard to avoid. I just asked Héctor do you think this horse can rate? He said no problem.”

As for Desert Gate, it was a game effort on the lead after never having gone beyond seven furlongs. Most recently Desert Gate was a troubled second in the Del Mar Futurity (G1) going seven furlongs Sept. 7.

“He was traveling very comfortably and so well,” Hernández said. “He gave me everything he had. He opened up a couple lengths. It was the first time he was going a mile-and-a-sixteenth, so it was a little long for him the first time. He’s young, and he’s got a lot of races to come and a lot of victories as well.”

Intrépido paid $19.60, $6.00 and $4.40. Desert Gate returned $3.00 and $2.10. Plutarch, ridden by Kazushi Kimura, paid $3.60.