Even without morning-line favorite Nysos in the field, Bob Baffert-trained horses still ran 1-2 in the March 3, $300,000 DK Horse San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita Park. While this wasn’t a huge surprise, the question in the stretch was which one of Baffert’s would prevail – betting favorite Imagination or second choice Wine Me Up. Neither colt gave in, as Imagination gutted out the victory by a head.

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With Nysos scratched to run another day, the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe had a field of four. The quartet bunched up going into the first turn in such a fashion as to elicit a stewards’ inquiry following the race, though there was no change. Wine Me Up had the lead, with Scatify behind him and Imagination to Scatify’s outside. Scatify bumped Imagination, “knocking him sideways,” according to the chart comments, and Baffert later said that Scatify hit Imagination from behind.

“When that horse (Scatify) hit (Imagination) from behind, it scared him and he took off, after that horse bumped him and hit him in the back,” Baffert said.

Imagination’s scare took him right to the front. Baffert said that at that point jockey Frankie Dettori moved Imagination “way off the rail to slow him down.”

“My horse got frightened, and I took him back to get him wide to get him to relax and get him back into the race. He fought a great duel. He was full of heart,” said Dettori.

Wine Me Up ranged up to Imagination going into the second turn and had the lead briefly. The two of them raced as a team throughout the stretch to the wire, the photo showing Imagination the winner. Imagination stopped the timer in 1:44.55, and it was 6 ¾ lengths back to third-place Mc Vay. Scatify was well back in fourth.

The San Felipe offers Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve qualifying points on a 50-25-15-10-5 scale to eligible top-five finishers. However, with Baffert-trained horses ineligible to race in the May 4 Kentucky Derby due to Churchill Downs Inc. extending its ban of the trainer from racing at its tracks, only Mc Vay and Scatify earned points – 15 and 10, respectively.

Tom Ryan, Frankie Dettori, Imagination (BENOIT photo)

Imagination was making his stakes debut in the San Felipe. He broke his maiden Jan. 1 in his third start after two seconds. He then finished second by a neck to Maymun, another talented Baffert trainee, in a mile allowance/optional claimer Feb. 11.

“Last time he was in front – Maymun came and got him,” Baffert said. “Today he showed some fight. He’s not a sprinter. I wasn’t really going to come back that quick, but I need to run these horses. If they’re doing well, you have to run these horses when you can. We’re trying to develop these horses, and so it was good for both of them. Wine Me Up ran tough.”

Baffert trains Imagination for a large partnership headed by SF Bloodstock, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables. That trio purchased the colt for $1,050,000 from Bridie Harrison at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds bred Imagination in Kentucky from Blum’s homebred Empire Maker mare Magical Feeling. The mare won three stakes for Blum, including the 2012 Barbara Fritchie Handicap, and earned $554,532. She has also produced Grade 3 winner Occult, a full sister to Imagination, and stakes-winning half-siblings Exulting and Magical.

Newgate Breaks Through with Game Big ‘Cap Victory

Newgate rallies late to win the Big 'Cap. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Two races later on Sunday, an eerily similar result occurred – an Into Mischief horse ridden by Frankie Dettori, trained by Bob Baffert, and wearing the #5 green saddle cloth colors won by a head. This time, it happened in the card’s marquee race, the $400,000, Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap Presented by Yaamava’ Resort & Casino, when Newgate ran down pacesetting longshot Subsanador to prevail.

It was Bob Baffert’s sixth victory in the Big Cap, and his first since Game On Dude in 2014, and it completed a stakes hat trick on the card for the Hall of Fame conditioner, following Imagination’s win in the San Felipe Stakes and Du Jour’s score in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes. Frankie Dettori was aboard for his first Big ‘Cap victory.

Baffert-trained Reincarnate finished third. Final time for 1 1/4 miles was 2:03.49.

Newgate, owned by a partnership that includes many of the same entities as Imagination’s group, earned his first win in his third start following an 11-month break from racing. The colt had briefly made noise on the 2023 Triple Crown trail with a runner-up finish in the Sham Stakes and a win in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes, but was then forced to miss time due to a foot injury. He returned this January with runner-up finishes in an allowance optional claiming race and to Newgrange in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes prior to his breakthrough in the Big ‘Cap. With the win, his record improved to 9-3-4-0 with $535,775 in earnings.