CYPRESS — Bob Baffert’s 3-year-olds this spring didn’t meet the super-high standards the trainer of two Triple Crown winners has established for his barn, settling for a 15th-place finish by Citizen Bull in the Kentucky Derby and fourths by Goal Oriented in the Preakness and Rodriguez in the Belmont Stakes.
But the enviable depth of Baffert’s sophomore class makes a strong summer and fall a possibility.
On Saturday, Nevada Beach became a horse to watch for the near future when he and jockey Juan Hernandez ran away with the $100,000 Los Alamitos Derby, passing stablemate Varney in the stretch and going on to win by 4¼ lengths in fast time.
“I knew I was going to win a derby,” Baffert joked. “I just didn’t know which one.”
It’s the ninth year in a row that a Baffert-trained horse won the Los Alamitos Derby and the 15th time overall, dating back to 2000 when it was the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park. It’s the fourth time in six years that Baffert horses went 1-2.
The 1:47.59 clocking for 1⅛ miles makes this the quickest Los Al Derby since Baffert’s Gimme Da Lute won in 1:47.09 in 2015.
A more important comparison going forward might be West Coast, Baffert’s 2017 Los Al Derby winner, who followed up with a front-running upset in the Grade I Travers Stakes at Saratoga. Baffert said he’s looking at the 1¼-mile Travers on Aug. 23 at Saratoga for Nevada Beach’s next start, a class jump to face the likes of Sovereignty and Journalism.
“We know he can get more distance, because he was just getting going there at the end,” Baffert said.
Hernandez said Nevada Beach, a son of 2019 3-year-old star Omaha Beach, seemed to like the Los Alamitos track better than the Santa Anita surface.
“He’s getting better and better. I had to chase after him a little bit over at Santa Anita, but he was aggressive today in a good way,” Hernandez said.
Nevada Beach paid $2.80 in winning a race reduced to four horses when Baffert scratched Tiz Secure.
The maiden Rank ran a distant third, and It’s a Factor was far back.
Nevada Beach, who ran second to Baffert’s Gaming in the 1 1/16-mile Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita in his second career start, became the fourth different Baffert 3-year-old to win at the stakes level at Santa Anita and Los Al in ’25, joining Gaming, Citizen Bull and Barnes, and the fifth nationally, including Rodriguez in New York’s Wood Memorial.
Somewhere in that list could be the colt who makes Baffert’s year.
• Los Alamitos’ first-ever pick-five carryover, $114,292, drew track-record new money, $860,345, in the sequence on races 1-5 Saturday. It paid $633 for 50 cents, with no winner over 4-1.
• California trainers had mixed results at Churchill Downs. Bob Hess Jr.-trained Roll On Big Joe ($11.90) and jockey Julien Leparoux, and Mark Glatt’s Dr. Venkman and Antonio Fresu, ran 1-2 in the Grade III Kelly’s Landing sprint. Glatt’s Mi Hermano Ramon and Fresu faded to fifth behind Brilliant Berti in the Wise Dan on turf, and Glatt’s Freedom’s Not Free and Fresu held third to Minaret Station in the American Derby on grass. The Churchill card featured Mindframe defeating Sierra Leone in the Stephen Foster, and Thorpedo Anna snapping back into form to win the Fleur de Lis.
• Kopion, Sweet Azteca and Richi are among 14 fillies and mares nominated for the Great Lady M. Stakes on Saturday, July 5, next-to-last day of the Los Alamitos meet.
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