With his three fillies making up half the field, including the top three betting choices, Bob Baffert knew that Sunday’s Santa Ynez Stakes was his to lose.
“You know, I was sort of nervous before the race because I thought, ‘What if I don’t win this?’ I’m going to have to do the low crawl out of here,” the trainer quipped to TVG.
Fortunately for Baffert, he left Santa Anita Park with a board sweep and 16 combined Kentucky Oaks points to boot.
Bast – a three-time Grade 1 winner in 2019 at 2 – passed stablemates Auberge and Golden Principal in the stretch to take the Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Ynez in her first start as a 3-year-old.
The Uncle Mo filly is now 6:4-1-1 lifetime, with all four wins coming in graded company. Bast’s only two career defeats were a second-place run in her August debut and a third-place finish behind British Idiom and Donna Veloce in November’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Sunday’s Santa Ynez went seven furlongs – 3/16 of a mile shorter than her Breeders’ Cup defeat over the same Santa Anita track at 1 1/16 miles.
Bast broke well under jockey Drayden Van Dyke and sat third most of the way behind her two stablemates. Auberge moved to the front after a slight stumble at the start and set fractions of :22.02 and :44.59.
Coming through the turn, the three Baffert horses were well in control. The only question was which of the three would cross first.
Bast was the one who had the strongest kick left, strolling on to a win in 1:23.42. She returned $3.20, with Auberge in second and Golden Principal in third.
“I hate to run these fillies together, but you have to get races into them,” Baffert said. “The thing about Bast, she was doing so well. If they’re doing well, then it’s equal opportunity in my barn. You have to run them.”
Bast’s victory paid her 10 points on the Road to the 2020 Kentucky Oaks. The Kentucky-bred filly, who’s campaigned by the Baoma Corporation, now leads those standings with 34 points.
Auberge (four points), Golden Principal (two) and fourth-place finisher Orquidias Biz (one) also picked up points toward the first Friday in May.
