NEWS
Baffert ready to dream with Lookin At Lucky
Posted: Monday, March 15, 2010 7:25 PM
LOOKIN AT LUCKY (outside) EDGES NOBLE'S PROMISE IN REBEL STAKES (G2)
Coady Photography/Sunny Taylor
by Jeff Lowe
Bob Baffert thought he knew the answers, and Lookin At Lucky came through on all the questions he was asked in the Rebel Stakes (G2) on March 13 at Oaklawn Park.
The champion two-year-old male of 2009, Lookin At Lucky aced a tough challenge in his first start as a three-year-old, nailing down a head victory over Noble’s Promise that had moments of drama both on the backstretch and at the finish line (video).
Jockey Garrett Gomez was forced to check when Lookin At Lucky jumped the heels of Noble’s Promise at the half-mile pole. He recovered and chased down Noble’s Promise on the outside to prevail in his first start outside of Southern California, on dirt, and with blinkers.
“He passed them all,” Baffert said. “I thought he would run well, but you never know. You need racing luck, and we got a little bit of racing luck. When he turned for home after the little bobble on the backside, he had to dig in deep to get there. He just showed a lot of quality. I don’t know if it was so much the blinkers or that he had a target that he needed to run at.
“It’s got to make you [Turf writers] feel better for voting for him for champion two-year-old. We watched Rachel Alexandra get beat, and you think, ‘Oh, I hope that’s not us.’ It’s horse racing, so anything can happen. That’s the beauty of it.”
Baffert said prior to the Rebel that he had not tightened the screws on Lookin At Lucky, and he was aware that rumors had been floating about the colt’s condition this winter. Baffert loved Lookin At Lucky’s second-to-last workout prior to the Rebel, a seven-furlong move at Santa Anita Park that he clocked in 1:23.80 handily, but the official time was 1:25.20.
“Whenever you have a good horse, people are always looking for something to go wrong,” Baffert said. “He’s been fit. He’s got a great foundation from his races as a two-year-old. He’s been working right along. He missed three days, five days here or there because of the rain, but he’s not a big, massive horse where they need a lot of running, a lot of fitness. He had a really unbelievable work that the clockers missed and they gave him [1:25.20], and it was really 1:23 and four. You just don’t do that on that track.”
Lookin At Lucky will return to Santa Anita on Thursday, and Baffert will take some time before he chooses between the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) on April 3 at Aqueduct or Arkansas Derby (G1) on April 10 at Oaklawn for a final Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) prep.
“If he would have run second, I would have been happy for his first start back, but when he won, it was exciting,” Baffert said. “You can keep dreaming in high def when you have a horse like that.”
In Lookin At Lucky’s absence, Sidney’s Candy assumed the role of the horse to beat in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) with his second straight Grade 2 victory in the San Felipe Stakes (G2) (video).
The Candy Ride (Arg) colt led throughout the 1 1/16-mile race under jockey Joe Talamo for trainer John Sadler. Interactif, switching from turf to Santa Anita’s synthetic surface, finished a half-length back in second, and previously unbeaten Caracortado finished third.
Odysseus battled back in the stretch to catch Schoolyard Dreams by a nose in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) (video) for owner Padua Stables and trainer Tom Albertrani, who might take the opportunity to train the Malibu Moon colt up to the Kentucky Derby.
Odysseus has won three of his four starts, and the Tampa Bay Derby put him in a seemingly safe position with $180,000 in graded stakes earnings. Albertrani won the 2006 Preakness Stakes (G1) with Bernardini in his fourth career start.
Schoolyard Dreams will be pointed to the Illinois Derby (G3) on April 3 at Hawthorne Race Course.
The colt’s co-owner, Eric Fein, and trainer, Derek Ryan, swept the Tampa Bay Derby and Illinois Derby last year with Musket Man, who then finished third in the Kentucky Derby and BlackBerry Preakness Stakes.
Schoolyard Dreams also finished second in the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) on February 13, and he has accrued $100,000 from the two graded stakes starts.
Trainer Derek Ryan said jockey Jeremy Rose made a premature move on the Stephen Got Even colt on the far turn that opened the door for Odysseus to rally back in the stretch and win by a nose.
“If he waits until he turns for home, he wins by three,” Ryan said. “We probably would have had a tough decision. We could have waited for the Derby, but now I have to go to Illinois.”
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
