Los Alamitos: Midnight Memories, Baffert win Bayakoa

Daughter emulated mother in the Grade 3, $101,000 Bayakoa Stakes on Friday.

Nine years after Tiz Midnight won the inaugural running of the race at Los Alamitos, Midnight Memories did the same, scoring as the even-money favorite in the test for fillies and mares.

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Racing for the same owner-trainer combination as Tiz Midnight, the 4-year-old Master filly was ready after a layoff of more than nine months, running down 7-5 second choice Desert Dawn in the final sixteenth of a mile to win by one length.

Owned by breeders Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman and trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Midnight Memories earned her fifth win in eight tries and pushed her earnings to $424,680. Three of her victories have come in graded events, and she has been worse than third only once.

Ridden by Juan Hernández, Midnight Memories completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.80, and she paid $4.00, $2.60 and $2.20.

The win was the second in a row for Baffert in the Bayakoa after he took the previous renewal in 2021 with As Time Goes By.

Desert Dawn, who was seeking her first win since the 2022 Santa Anita Oaks (G2), got the jump on the eventual winner around the turn, opening a clear advantage into the lane. She ultimately had to settle for second for the fifth time in her career while nearly six lengths clear of stablemate Turnerloose.

Desert Dawn returned $2.20 and $2.10. The show price on Turnerloose, the fourth choice in the field of seven at nearly 8-1, was $3.80. Ganadora, Smoothlikebuttah, Trouville and Violent Runner completed the order of finish.

Mike Marlow, Baffert’s assistant trainer, thought Midnight Memories, who had not raced since finishing third in the Beholder Mile (G1) on March 11, was in trouble when Desert Dawn moved away from her.

“She had trained well for this, but in all honesty, I thought she was done on the turn,’’ Marlow said. “(Hernández) started riding her pretty hard, and at the three-eighths pole, I thought to myself she’s not going anywhere.

“Then Juan got her outside, and she came back. He just said she didn’t want to run into the kickback. He did a great job riding her. She showed a new dimension today coming from off the pace.’’

The stakes win was the second in less than a week for Hernandez, who captured the Starlet (G2) last weekend for Baffert aboard Nothing Like You.

“She broke sharp, but I let her settle off the two leaders (stablemate Ganadora and Violent Runner),’’ said Hernández, the career, daytime Thoroughbred meet leader with 16 stakes wins. “She doesn’t like dirt in the face, so I tried to avoid that as much as I could down the backside.

“(Desert Dawn) got the jump on us turning for home, but once I swung this filly out in the stretch, she really took off.”