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Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Be Your Best and Skippylongstocking give Ortiz and Joseph a stakes double at Santa Anita
In a photo provided by Benoit Photo, King of Gosford and jockey Flavien Prat, outside, overpower Mi Hermano Ramon (Hector Berrios), middle, and Cabo Spirit (Lanfranco Dettori), inside, to win the Grade I, $300,000 Shoemaker Mile, Monday, May 26, 2025 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In a photo provided by Benoit Photo,Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking and jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., right, hold off Midnight Mammoth (Armando Ayuso up), inside, to win the Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup Monday, May 26, 2025 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Skippylongstocking, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, center front, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In a photo provided by Benoit Photo, King of Gosford and jockey Flavien Prat, outside, overpower Mi Hermano Ramon (Hector Berrios), middle, and Cabo Spirit (Lanfranco Dettori), inside, to win the Grade I, $300,000 Shoemaker Mile, Monday, May 26, 2025 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In a photo provided by Benoit Photo,Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking and jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., right, hold off Midnight Mammoth (Armando Ayuso up), inside, to win the Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup Monday, May 26, 2025 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Skippylongstocking, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, center front, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) In this image provided by Benoit Photo, Be Your Best, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, wins the Grade I $300,000 Gamely Stakes horse race Monday, May 26, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP) ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — Be Your Best led all the way to earn her first Grade 1 victory in the $300,000 Gamely Stakes by 2 3/4 lengths Monday at Santa Anita. Ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., Be Your Best ran 1 1/8 miles on turf in 1:46.26, the fastest time in the race for fillies and mares since 2017, when Lady Eli won in 1:45.29. Advertisement The 5-year-old Ireland-bred mare and Ortiz traveled from the East Coast to compete. It was Florida-based trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.'s first career win at Santa Anita. About 30 minutes later, Ortiz rode odds-on favorite Skippylongstocking to a three-quarters of a length victory in the $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup for Joseph. 'It was amazing to get that Grade 1, then you don't want to go home with Skippy getting beat,' Joseph told track officials by phone. 'So for him to go out there and win a historic race like the Hollywood Gold Cup was truly special.' In the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile, Britain-bred King of Gosford and jockey Flavien Prat won. Advertisement King of Gosford ran the distance on turf in 1:33.52 and paid $10.80, $4.80 and $3.60. Mi Hermano Ramon was second and Cabo Spirit was third. In the Gold Cup, Skippylongstocking ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.64 and paid $3.60, $2.60 and $2.10. He increased his career earnings to over $3.6 million with 11 wins in 32 starts. Midnight Mammoth returned $7.20 and $3.60 and Extensive paid $2.40 to show. It was Skippylongstocking's eighth graded stakes victory at six different tracks. 'He's just a hard-knocking horse who takes his track with him everywhere he goes,' Joseph said. 'He's a sound horse and he's very strong mentally. We'll be forever grateful for him.' Advertisement In the Gamely, Be Your Best paid $6.20, $3.80 and $3.00. Lady Claypoole returned $8.20 and $4.60 and Liguria returned $5 to show. 'She is a very good filly and she showed it,' Joseph said. 'This is really big for us.' Be Your Best has six wins in 20 career starts and earnings of over $1 million. ___ AP horse racing:
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bob Baffert is back at the Kentucky Derby with 2 contenders after serving a 3-year suspension
FILE - Jockey John Velazquez, front left, stands with Jill Baffert as they watch as Jill's husband, trainer Bob Baffert, holds up the winner's trophy after Medina Spirit won the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) FILE - In this image provided by Benoit Photo, trainer Bob Baffert celebrates his fourth win of the day after Richi won the Grade III $100,000 Las Flores Stakes horse race, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP, File) FILE - Jockey John Velazquez, front left, stands with Jill Baffert as they watch as Jill's husband, trainer Bob Baffert, holds up the winner's trophy after Medina Spirit won the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) FILE - In this image provided by Benoit Photo, trainer Bob Baffert celebrates his fourth win of the day after Richi won the Grade III $100,000 Las Flores Stakes horse race, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. (Benoit Photo via AP, File) Bob Baffert is back at the Kentucky Derby for the first time in four years, having served his punishment for Medina Spirit's failed drug test and coming to the place where he's won a record-tying six times. He's settled in at his old Barn 33, the signs boasting of his Churchill Downs triumphs again hanging on the outside wall. Advertisement 'I'm going to have fun now that everything is behind me,' Baffert told The Associated Press in an interview this week. The white-haired trainer will saddle Wood Memorial winner Rodriguez and Citizen Bull, last year's 2-year-old champion, in the Derby on May 3. 'Going back with a live horse is more important to me,' he said. 'I really feel like this year I have two horses that could be in the top five, top 10.' Baffert spent the last three years away from the race he values most, relegated to watching on television with family and friends. Taking away some of the sting was the knowledge that he didn't have a horse he believed could have won it those years. Advertisement 'The Derby is a great experience if you have a horse that's capable and has a chance,' he said. He thought he had that horse in 2021, with Medina Spirit crossing the finish line first to give Baffert a record-breaking seventh Derby victory. Until a failed drug test ultimately disqualified the colt — just the second in Derby history to be DQ'd for that reason — and tarnished the reputation of a trainer known as the face of horse racing, having won the Triple Crown in 2015 and 2018. Baffert initially was suspended two years in June 2021 for Medina Spirit testing positive for betamethasone, a steroid which is legal as a therapeutic in Kentucky but not allowed in a horse's system on race day. Advertisement 'We never denied the positive,' he said. 'We knew we had the positive.' Baffert said he and his lawyers attempted to explain that Medina Spirit had been treated with a topical ointment containing the steroid for a skin inflammation. His biggest regret? 'I wish I would have known about the (steroid) having the betamethasone,' he said. 'In hindsight we would have left it (in California). Then we wouldn't have had this issue. 'But at the end of the day, it still can't be in his system and that was the problem.' The Louisville track tacked on an extra year to his suspension in July 2023 after continuous legal appeals by Baffert about the failed test. In January 2024, he dropped the appeal related to Medina Spirit's DQ. The colt had died following a workout in late 2021. Advertisement Accepting Baffert's words of contrition, Churchill Downs lifted his suspension last July and he returned to the track in the fall to win a race. Bill Carstanjen, CEO of Churchill Downs Inc., was there to shake his hand. 'We had a good talk,' Baffert said. 'I understood his position.' The ordeal took a toll on the 72-year-old trainer and his family, his clients and his wallet. 'It's one of those things where I'm just tired of talking about it,' he said. 'It's been a tough three years and I've put that behind me.' While the suspension kept Baffert from competing at Churchill Downs, his horses were able to run in the other Triple Crown races. He won the Preakness in 2023 for a record eighth time. Advertisement Being back at his old Kentucky home is reuniting Baffert with folks he hasn't seen in recent years. And his return is welcomed by some rival trainers. 'There's no question that Bob Baffert is very popular and draws a lot of people's attention. He deserves to be back,' said Mark Casse, who saddles Sandman in the Derby. 'We all want to win, but we want to beat the best.' Michael McCarthy trains likely Derby favorite Journalism and sees Baffert daily at their shared Santa Anita base in California. 'He's a polarizing figure in our sport,' McCarthy said, adding that Baffert 'puts people in the seats.' Advertisement Despite precarious times for racing in California, Baffert sees himself continuing in the only job he's ever had as long as he still enjoys it and attracts the type of owners who can afford quality horses. 'I love the journey of it all,' he said. 'After so many years of being successful, you think you've built enough equity where you could sort of cruise along, but not as a horse trainer. Every year I'm starting out fresh. That's what keeps me going. These horses are great therapy.' Baffert is winning at a 33% clip so far this year in a sport where misery is often just around the corner. 'It's a fun business if you let it be a fun business,' he said. 'If you don't let it get you bitter, you'll be fine, and I have not let it get me bitter. What happened, happened. I took responsibility for it, so that's it.' ___ AP horse racing:
