Hope Road

Hope Road made three starts as a 2-year-old in 2023 including a pair of runner-up finishes against maidens and an 11th-place finish in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante. Hope Road earned her maiden win the following year in 2024 when making her 3-year-old debut off a nine-month layoff in a six-furlong dirt race at Santa Anita on June 15. Hope Road then added a wire-to-wire allowance optional claiming 5 1/2-length win at Del Mar in her next start which came at the same six-furlong distance on Aug. 4. 

Hope Road jumped back up in class against stakes competition in her next race, and was successful this time with a victory in the Grade 3 $150,000 Torrey Pines Stakes going one mile on the main track on Aug. 31 at Del Mar. Hope Road sat behind a runaway pace-setter in the Torrey Pines after being sent off as the 1-2 odds favorite in a six-horse field and then blasted to the lead on the turn and took control in the stretch to win by five lengths.

After a two-month break, Hope Road returned in search of another graded stakes win on the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Championship Saturday undercard at Del Mar. She was sent off as the heavy favorite in the Grade 3, one-mile Bayakoa Stakes and validated that support with a half-length win over Alpha Bella.

Hope Road returned for her 4-year-old campaign in 2025 but went winless in her first three outings of the year including a second-place finish in Santa Anita's Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes, a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs, and a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Winning Colors Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Hope Road finally found the right spot for her first win of 2025 in the Grade 1 $500,000 Resorts World Casino Ballerina Stakes going seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 23. Sent off as the 2.05-1 favorite in a seven-horse field in the Ballerina, Hope Road raced up-close right behind a fast pace, challenged in the stretch, and prevailed by a margin of two lengths under jockey Jose Ortiz in a time of 1:21.93. The Ballerina was a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series "win and you're in" race, and with her victory she earned a fees-paid berth into the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Hope Road is trained by Bob Baffert. She was bred in Kentucky by the sire Quality Road out of the mare Marley's Freedom by Blame.