By Jalen Santos Twitter @jalen_santos7
This Saturday will be one of the biggest of the Santa Anita meets with a handful of graded stakes. Let’s focus on the Kentucky Derby (Gr.1) points race, the San Felipe (Gr.2)
The San Felipe (Gr.2) holds a very rare aspect, an 11-horse field in California, which is known to have between four and six horse fields primarily, especially at Santa Anita. Also in this race, we see four horses under trainer Tim Yakteen and three of the four making their first start with him, after being former Bob Baffert trainees. They have been transferred to a former Bob Baffert trainee himself, in Tim Yakteen.
This follows a long journey of battles between Bob Baffert and CDI (Churchill Downs Inc.) since the 2021 Kentucky Derby when Bob Baffert trainee Medina Spirit won the race and later tested positive for Betamethasone, resulting in a disqualification. One of the more recent punches CDI took on Bob Baffert was in the nominations for the triple crown, where at the top it read that all Bob Baffert trainees must be transferred to other trainers by February 28th, just a couple days ago, in order to be eligible for the Kentucky Derby. Since then, around a handful of Bob Baffert horses have been transferred to Tim Yakteen. With that explained, let’s get into the race.
Drawing the rail is the Pennsylvania bred Chase The Chaos, trained by Ed Moger jr. and to be ridden by Armando Ayuso, the gelded son of Astern boasts a record of three wins, two seconds and one third in six starts, meaning the gelding has never been off the board in his life. He ran in two stakes as a two-year-old, finishing in the Gold Nugget stakes and second in the Gold Rush stakes before winning an allowance optional claimer to close out his two-year-old campaign. He started the year off with a bang, springing an upset victory in the El Camino Real Derby. Chase The Chaos has run his last four races at Golden Gate and his first two starts at Canterbury Park, so the step up into graded stakes company at a mainstream track like Santa Anita will be interesting to watch. I think he’ll need to take another step forward, but he has been training well at Golden Gate and you have to respect his consistency. Watch this one as a potential board-hitter here.
In post two is the first of the former Bob Baffert trainees in National Treasure. This son of Quality Road makes his first start for Tim Yakteen and is to be ridden by John Velazquez. The colt comes in with a record of one win, one second and two thirds in four career races. He started off well, with a nice debut victory before running second in the American Pharoah (Gr.1) to stablemate Cave Rock, who also won the Del Mar Futurity (Gr.1) and would go on to finish second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (Gr.1) where National Treasure finished third after the American Pharoah.
After the Breeders Cup, he was given a winter break and came back to run third again in January going a mile in the Sham Stakes (Gr.3) behind recent third place finisher in the $1m Rebel (Gr.2) at Oaklawn as well as recent Robert B. Lewis (Gr.3) winner Newgate. Both of which were his stablemates at the time as Reincarnate still is, but Newgate did not make the switch to Tim Yakteen as he was sent to the sidelines following his B. Lewis victory with a minor hock injury, labeling him out for sixty days. National Treasure looks to bounce back with a disappointing effort as favorite last out, but the hopes are high for this one as the form from that race holds up well.
Now let’s head towards the outside with post seven, Hejazi. This son of Bernardini is out of unaccomplished mare G Note, by Medaglia D’Oro. That pedigree says he should be able to run all day. He comes in with a record of one win, two seconds and one third in four starts. The Tim Yakteen trainee will be ridden by regular rider Mike Smith as they enter off his maiden victory fourth try. He started his career with a second-place finish to upsetter Classical Cat who won by 2 ½ lengths.
Next out, the $3.55m yearling purchase was unlucky to run into stablemate Speed Boat Beach who held off Hejazi by 1 ¼ length to win his debut in track record time going five and a half furlongs at Del Mar. With that effort, he was put into the American Pharoah (Gr.1) where he finished third behind previously mentioned Cave Rock and returning foe National Treasure. He received a break and came back ready to roll last out in the middle of January where he executed his opponents, winning a six and a half furlong maiden by 1 ¼ lengths gate to wire through fractions of 21.97, 44.28, 1:08.41 and finishing up well in 1:14.58 over stablemate Worcester who was 3 ½ lengths ahead of the rest after chasing throughout. I give this one a good chance on the stretch out back to a mile and a sixteenth now that he’s shown some maturity but he’ll surely need to try to rate early going the distance here.
Now we move to post eight, Geaux Rocket Ride. This son of Candy Ride is piloted by Flavien Prat and trained by Richard Mandella. While he lacks in experience, with only one start, he makes up for in talent with one very impressive win. Battling with Bob Baffert trainee Sonoran through fractions of 22.00, 44.62 and 57.16, he drew away late to win by 5 ¾ lengths in a final time of 1:09.52 for the six furlongs.
The runner up, Sonoran, finished a length and a half clear of the rest, came back to romp by 7 ¼ lengths. This horse is a serious win contender on the step up in class and a pedigree that says he can go even further, being by Candy Ride who sired the champion Gun Runner, out of an Uncle Mo mare as Uncle Mo just recently sired the 2022 Belmont Stakes (Gr.1) winner and Wood Memorial (Gr.2) winner, Mo Donegal. To me, the most impressive thing is that he won first time out which is incredibly impressive for a Richard Mandella trainee as Richard Mandella is 11% with first time starters since 2000. He might have to deal with the furious early speed of Hejazi but look for him to improve as most do their second time out and that first race alone makes him very competitive here. Now, it’s time for him to answer the contender or pretender question as most are this time of year.
Rounding out the big eleven horse field is Practical Move, Bluegrass Go Go, Genius Jimmy, Crypto Ride, Fort Bragg, Skinner and Mr Fisk to make a competitive field for this year’s San Felipe (Gr.2) in which my main pick, although I deliberated for a while between the four I talked about above, I’m leaning towards Geaux Rocket Ride in this spot due to being a second time starter, we’ve quite literally only seen the beginning of him and he has a lot more upside and potential with one start versus three or four starts and the Richard Mandella stat I talked about.
My longshot pick is going to be Chase The Chaos on the step up in class due to his consistency, although I’m not sure how much of a longshot he will be off of his last win.
