Liaison on the Derby Trail

“He’s doing really well,” Bob Baffert said by telephone from his Santa Anita base Sunday morning in an update on Liaison, who gave the Hall of Fame trainer a record sixth victory in the $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park Saturday. 

Liaison, recording his third straight victory under jockey Rafael Bejarano, hopes to follow in the giant footsteps of Baffert’s five previous winners--Real Quiet, Captain Steve, Point Given, Pioneerof the Nile and Lookin at Lucky--who collectively went on to earn a Horse of the Year title and three Eclipse Awards while capturing one Kentucky Derby, three Preakness Stakes, one Belmont Stakes, one Dubai World Cup, one Hollywood Gold Cup and two Santa Anita Derbies, among others.

Baffert said Liaison, a son of Indian Charlie owned by Arnold Zetcher, would probably resurface at Santa Anita. “Nothing definite yet,” said Baffert. “We all need to sit down and see how he’s doing. He’s on the Derby program.”

Baffert also has several other promising colts on the Triple Crown trail, including Sky Kingdom and Drill, the fourth and ninth-place finishers, respectively, in the Futurity.

“They all came back in good shape,” said Baffert, who also has Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint winner Secret Circle and Hollywood Prevue Stakes winner So Brilliant in his barn.

The Futurity, continuing to serve as an important barometer for future greatness, also showed the significance of prep races at the same distance over this track. Liaison and Rousing Sermon, who finished a neck back, finished in the same order in the Real Quiet Stakes prep at 1 1/16 miles on Cushion Track a month earlier. A week earlier, Killer Graces and Charm the Maker finished one-two in the $402,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes for fillies, reversing the order of their finish in the Sharp Cat Stakes prep.