Nashville, Charlatan clash in highly anticipated Malibu battle

Hall of Fame conditioners Bob Baffert and Steve Asmussen will square off in Santa Anita’s marque opening day event on Saturday, the Grade 1, $300,000 Malibu Stakes.

Baffert will be represented by Charlatan, who has crossed the finish line first in three career starts, most recently a division of the Arkansas Derby (G1) on May 2, and Asmussen will tighten the cinch on Nashville, who set a track record for six furlongs on Nov. 7 at Keeneland and is unbeaten in his three starts, all sprints.

Throw in Mark Glatt’s Grade 1 stakes-winning sprinter Collusion Illusion, Michael McCarthy’s up-and-coming Independence Hall and Baffert’s multiple graded stakes winning Thousand Words, and the Malibu, which has attracted six sophomores at at seven furlongs, has the look of an outstanding race.

CHARLATAN

Owner: SF Racing, LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, LLC, Frederick Hertich III, John D. Fielding & Golconda Stables

Trainer: Bob Baffert

Although unbeaten, Charlatan was disqualified from purse money in the Arkansas Derby for a prohibited medication and is thus officially two for three. A first-out maiden winner here going six furlongs on Feb. 16, this chestnut colt by Speightstown then stretched out to one mile first condition allowance on March 14, airing by 10 1/2 lengths at odds of 1-5. Off at 2-5 in the second division of the Arkansas Derby, he again prevailed in gate-to-wire fashion, winning by six lengths. With an outstanding work tab to his credit, he’ll get the first-time services of Mike Smith in the Malibu and looms the likely first choice in the betting.

NASHVILLE

Owner: CHC Inc. and WinStar Farm LLC

Trainer: Steve Asmussen

A first-out maiden winner going 6 1/2 lengths over a sloppy track at Saratoga Sept. 2, Nashville blazed to a 9 3/4-length allowance tally going six furlongs at Keeneland on Oct. 10. Off as the prohibitive 1-10 favorite on Breeders’ Cup Classic Day in an ungraded six furlong stakes on Nov. 7, he again waltzed to a scintillating gate to wire score, winning by 3 1/2 lengths while setting a Keeneland track record of 1:07.80. Like Charlatan, Nashville is by Eclipse Sprint Champ Speightstown, and he appears to have trained forwardly with Asmussen at Fairgrounds in New Orleans. He’ll again be ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., who has been aboard in his last two starts.

COLLUSION ILLUSION

Owner: Dan Agnew, Jerry Schneider, Rodney Orr & MyRacehorse.com

Trainer: Mark Glatt

A game nose winner of the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1) three starts back at Del Mar, this colt by Twirling Candy was a close third in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1) two starts back on Sept. 27. Off at 15-1 from the No. 3 post in a field of 14 in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 7, he was shuffled far back early but put in a much better-than-looked run through the stretch and has thus retained the services of Flavien Prat. A three-time graded stakes winning sprinter, Collusion Illusion has faced older horses in his last three starts and looms a stout threat as he seeks his sixth win from nine overall starts.

THOUSAND WORDS

Owners: Albaugh Family Stables LLC & Spendthrift Farm, LLC

Trainer: Bob Baffert

The “Other Baffert” by any measure, Thousand Words was brilliant in taking an ungraded 1 1/16 mile stakes at Del Mar by three quarters of a length two starts back on Aug. 1. Subsequently scratched when unruly in the Kentucky Derby paddock on Sept. 5, he pressed the early pace in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico and tired to finish eighth, beaten 16 1/2 lengths. A first-out maiden winner going 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita in October 2019, he then was a game neck winner of the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) in his second start on Dec. 7, 2019 and made it three in a row in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3) on Feb. 1. In what will be his first start around one turn since his maiden win, this Pioneerof the Nile colt will be bidding for his fifth win from nine lifetime starts.

INDEPENDENCE HALL

Owners: Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Twin Creeks Racing Stables LLC, Kathleen & Robert Verratti

Trainer: Michael McCarthy

Precocious at age 2, this colt by the hot sire Constitution was a first-out seven furlong maiden winner at Parx Racing in September 2019 and then blasted to a 12 1/4-length win in the Nashua Stakes (G3) going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 3, 2019. A subsequent four-length winner of an ungraded stakes at the same trip on Jan. 1, he was second in the Sam Davis (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 8 in his fourth start while off at 3-5. In his final start for trainer Michael Trombetta, Independence Hall was well beaten by Tiz the Law in the Florida Derby (G1) March 28 and was then idle until Nov. 8, when he overcame early trouble to register a 1 1/2-length win in a 6 1/2-furlong classified allowance over a track listed as “good” at Del Mar in his first start for McCarthy. Unbeaten in two sprints, Independence Hall looms dangerous as a “now” commodity.

The Malibu is the tenth race on Santa Anita's 11-race Saturday card, with a post time of about 6:30 p.m. ET.