ARCADIA — Nysos is a horse with a future, again.
Back from the injury that cost the once top-ranked young colt more than a year of racing, Nysos carried jockey Juan Hernandez to victory in the $100,000, Grade III Triple Bend Stakes by a widening margin of 5 ½ lengths over Dr. Venkman at Santa Anita on Saturday to give trainer Bob Baffert more options than he cared to specify.
Baffert did say he would start his planning for the 4-year-old owned by Charles and Susan Chu with the goal of competing at the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, and left no doubt that the race for Nysos there would be the 1¼-mile Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“He’s a Classic horse. He can run all day,” Baffert said.
But where is Nysos likely to show up on the way to the Classic, and could it include Del Mar during the summer season that opens July 18?
“(He could) show up anywhere,” Baffert said in the Santa Anita winner’s circle, indicating a next race out of state is possible, too.
Nysos has four wins in five career starts, the only defeat coming in his return to racing on Kentucky Derby day at Churchill Downs, where he ran superbly on a sloppy track only to lose by a neck to Mindframe in the Grade I Churchill Downs Stakes at 7 furlongs.
Fit after that, Nysos went into the 7-furlong Triple Bend at 1-5 odds in a field reduced to four horses by the scratch of Vlahos.
It was an unusual sight as the four virtually lined up side by side on the long backstretch run, with the favorite on the inside. Hernandez, taking over the mount from Flavien Prat, held his position and let Nysos fight back as Dr. Venkman and Antonio Fresu challenged on the turn. Never feeling the whip as he pulled away, Nysos ($2.40) was clocked in 1:21.28, the fastest Triple Bend in eight years.
Smooth Cruisein finished 4¼ lengths back in third, 13 lengths ahead of 2023 Triple Bend winner Spirit of Makena.
So Nysos is back in the promising position he was in the last time Santa Anita fans saw him, in the dominant win in the Feb. 3, 2024, Robert B. Lewis Stakes that made him the No. 1-ranked 3-year-old at the time, preceding what was thought initially to be a minor injury.
“Now, from here, we can build and pick our spots,” said Baffert, who said the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 30 is a potential step.
Meanwhile, this year’s 3-year-olds are uppermost in Baffert’s mind. The trainer leaves Tuesday for Saratoga to prepare Wood Memorial winner Rodriguez for next Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. Baffert also plans to run 2-year-old champion Citizen Bull, 15th in the Kentucky Derby, and Madaket Road, the Pat Day Mile runner-up at Churchill, in the 7-furlong Woody Stephens Stakes on Belmont day. Baffert will remove blinkers from Citizen Bull in an effort to get him to rate.
Whatever happens there, planning Nysos’ summer will be a nice project to come home to.
FINISH LINES
• Kendrick Carmouche received the George Woolf Award in a winner’s-circle ceremony between the eighth and ninth races. The award, voted by fellow jockeys, is given to a different rider each year in honor of on- and off-the-track distinction. The Louisiana-born, New York-based Carmouche, a 41-year-old winner of more than 4,000 races, gave credit to his father, jockey Sylvester Carmouche, who died in 2024. “This is really for him, you know,” Carmouche said, choking up.
• Grade I winner Sweet Azteca and jockey Juan Hernandez are 3-5 on the morning line for Sunday’s four-horse Desert Stormer Stakes, the 5-year-old’s first start since she finished last at 1-10 in the Chillingworth Stakes in October. Trainer Richard Baltas told Santa Anita publicity: “I don’t think she’s dead fit, but she’s fit to run and this is a good starting point” for a late-season campaign.
• Elsewhere, Mystik Dan returned to Churchill Downs and won for the first time in six starts since the 2024 Kentucky Derby, jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. taking a familiar inside path to victory in the Grade III Blame Stakes, paying $8.12. Antiquarian was second, favored Post Time third.
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