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Bob Baffert, Martin Garcia ring up another big win at Santa Anita

October 6, 2024

ARCADIA – The skills of jockey Martin Garcia and trainer Bob Baffert have combined to produce victories in some of America’s biggest races over the past 15 years.

With the addition of a little luck, they ended up in the Santa Anita winner’s circle together again Saturday, posing for pictures with Citizen Bull after the 2-year-old’s front-running victory in the $300,000, Grade I American Pharoah Stakes.

As Baffert tells the story, Garcia, who has been riding in Kentucky, phoned just to say hello on the morning that entries were being drawn for the American Pharoah and other races on a card full of races with implications for next month’s Breeders’ Cup. As it happened, Baffert had more horses than available jockeys for the American Pharoah and the $200,000, Grade II Oak Leaf Stakes. And here was the answer to his problem.

“I go, ‘Hey, I’m glad you called. What are you doing Saturday?’ ” Baffert said. “He said, ‘Nothing! I’m there.’”

Citizen Bull (who paid $8.60) scored his second win in three starts and his first stakes win the 1 1/16-mile American Pharoah by two lengths over Getaway Car and Juan Hernandez, with McKinzie Street and Kazushi Kimura nearly six lengths farther back in third.

Citizen Bull and Getaway Car are both trained by Baffert and owned by a partnership headed by SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables, and Baffert also had fourth-place Emerald Bay in the American Pharoah.

The winner, a son of Into Mischief, is Baffert’s and Garcia’s first Grade I winner together since 2020, but joins a long list that includes Bayern in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic, Lookin At Lucky in the 2010 Preakness, and New Year’s Day in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

The $2 million Juvenile, on the first day of the Nov. 1-2 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, is the next target for Citizen Bull and presumably Getaway Car, while Baffert also has Del Mar Futurity winner Gaming, with whom the trainer opted to skip the American Pharoah.

The Del Mar race was a disappointment for Citizen Bull’s connections. He finished third as a 13-10 favorite after dropping back to sixth with Mike Smith riding. Smith was away Saturday, taking mounts at Keeneland.

“I always say things happen for a reason,” Baffert said of the chance reconnection with Garcia.

Said Garcia: “He (Baffert) just told me, ‘Let him run how he wants to run, and you will take a picture today.’ And that’s exactly how it came out.”

It was Baffert’s 13th win in the American Pharoah.

Earlier Saturday, the Hall of Fame trainer won the $200,000, Grade II Oak Leaf Stakes for 2-year-old fillies for the 13th time as Non Compliant ($4) and Hernandez led a Baffert trifecta with early leaders Nooni and Tenma finishing a game second and a weakening third.

Garcia rode Nooni, after Hernandez had chosen Non Compliant, and Baffert was especially pleased with the improved effort by the $1.8 million filly whose previous start was a green fifth-place finish behind Tenma in the Del Mar Debutante.

“At least she tried today,” Baffert said of Nooni. “She’s very skittish, for some reason. She’s getting better.”

In between Baffert’s stakes wins with 2-year-olds, it was a day of upsets amid mid-90s temperatures that prompted Santa Anita to shorten pre-race exposure to the heat by having jockeys mount up in the shade of the saddling enclosure instead of the walking ring.

Two of California’s best fillies saw winning streaks ended emphatically by Phil D’Amato-trained opponents.

Three-year-old Iscreamuscream cornered badly and finished fourth at 3-2 odds behind D’Amato’s Hang the Moon ($21.80) and Kimura in the $200,000, Grade II Rodeo Drive Stakes at 1 1/4 on turf.

Four-year-old sprinter Sweet Azteca led early but faded to fourth and last at 1-10 odds behind D’Amato’s One Magic Philly ($9.60) and Antonio Fresu in the $100,000, Grade III Chillingworth Stakes.

Both beaten favorites’ jockeys said their horses seemed OK physically after those races.

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The long-shot winner of the day was Pali Kitten ($29.80) in the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes at 5 furlongs on turf. Rallied by Kimura from last early in a field of four 2-year-olds, Doug O’Neill-trained Pali Kitten beat slow-starting Smash It by a neck as front-running favorite Dreamaway faded to third.

Sunday, the second and last weekend of Breeders’ Cup prep races at Santa Anita concludes with D’Amato-trained 2-year-olds favored in two Grade III stakes on turf, Iron Man Cal in the $100,000 Zuma Beach and Thought Process in the $100,000 Surfer Girl.

Orange County Register

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Bob Baffert, Martin Garcia ring up another big win at Santa Anita

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