Multiple Grade 1-winning filly Bast retired with injury
Three-time Grade 1-winning filly Bast, perhaps the best chance in Bob Baffert’s barn at winning the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, has retired with a soft tissue injury, the trainer said Thursday.
Baffert said he had been going “light” lately on the daughter of Uncle Mo, but he noticed a filling in her ankle this week, the beginnings of something that could become serious. Bast would have needed four months off from training.
“We just decided it would be in the best interest to retire her,” Baffert said. “There’s no guarantee she’d come back at the same level.”
There are no imminent plans to breed Bast, with the decision to end her career on track coming in the last 24 hours.
A $500,000 yearling purchase for Baoma Corporation, Bast won four of six starts overall. After finishing second on debut, she won the Del Mar Debutante (G1) and Chandelier Stakes (G1) to emerge as a leader in the division.
Defeated in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies after chasing a hot pace, Bast bounced back to take Los Alamitos’ Starlet (G1) to conclude her 2-year-old season. She returned a winner at 3 of the Santa Ynez Stakes (G2) in her final career start on Jan. 5.
“I backed off of her to go light with her, and then she does this,” Baffert said. “I think she just did it jumping around. Those things happen.”
Bast earned $852,200.