Horse racing notes: Brilliantly, Juan Hernandez head Bob Baffert trio at Santa Anita
Bob Baffert trains three of the six fillies and mares in the Grade III La Cañada Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday, and the jockey assignments help to identify the best of them. Juan Hernandez rides Brilliantly, the 7-5 favorite to handle 1-1/16 miles and the graded stakes level, while Kazushi Kimura has Nafisa and Tiago Pereira gets a shot on a Baffert horse with Ooty.
The top non-Baffert threat is Doug O’Neill’s So There She Was with Emisail Jaramillo. An unofficial stat: Since the beginning of March 2025, when Hernandez is aboard one of multiple Baffert horses in a stakes race, Hernandez has won a phenomenal 50% of the time (17 of 34). The percentage rises if you exclude races in which Flavien Prat rides one of the Baffert horses.
• The rich Pegasus World Cup card is Saturday at Gulfstream Park in Florida. Seven-year-old White Abarrio (Irad Ortiz Jr.), defending champion in the $3 million PWC Invitational at 1⅛ miles, is 4-1 in a full field headed by undefeated 4-year-old Disco Time (Flavien Prat), who is 8-5 as he’s tested for class and distance. John Sadler’s 12-1 Full Serrano (Joel Rosario) and Bob Baffert’s 10-1 Madaket Road (Mike Smith) carry California hopes.
• The $1 million PWC Turf Invitational, at 1⅛ miles, has 6-year-old Program Trading (Prat) 5-2 to bounce back from a rough 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar. Cabo Spirit (Smith) is 8-1 to pull off another front-running upset for George Papaprodromou, making the 7-year-old the best of five Californians entered.
• Ted Noffey, the undefeated Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, remained favored at 6-1 in last weekend’s round of Kentucky Derby future betting. Remsen winner Paladin (14-1) was second among 39 individual horses listed, while Bill Mott-trained maiden winners Chief Wallabee (17-1) and Thunderously (22-1) were among the new contenders. Bob Baffert-trained Del Mar Futurity winner Brant (23-1) was the top Californian, and Mark Glatt’s San Vicente Stakes upsetter So Happy (32-1) landed at 13th in fans’ early view of the May 2 Derby.
• While the North American Horse of the Year was being crowned on Thursday, the New Zealand-bred, Hong Kong-based sprinter Ka Ying Rising was named World Horse of the Year by the racing data provider Timeform. Ka Ying Rising has 17 wins in 19 career starts after a 5-year-old season that included a victory in Australia in the gelding’s first race outside Hong Kong. He goes for a Hong Kong record-tying 17th consecutive win Sunday at Sha Tin.
• FDD Dreams was named world champion quarter horse for 2025, as well as champion 3-year-old, after becoming the first this century to win both the All American Derby in Albuquerque and the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos.
• Jim Cassidy, a longtime trainer and former California Thoroughbred Trainers president, died Wednesday in Monrovia at age 80 after fighting heart disease, Santa Anita announced. A New Yorker often seen in a Yankees cap, Cassidy won Grade I races with Evening Jewel, The Usual Q.T., Ticker Tape, Tom’s Tribute, Singhalese and Milk It Mick.
• California Cup Sprint winner Man O Rose earned the highest Beyer speed figure (97) at Saturday’s Cal Cup, fast enough to win open-company stakes. But trainer Jeff Mullins prefers to keep the 6-year-old gelding with Cal-breds. “It’s all about management, right?” Mullins said in the Santa Anita winner’s circle. Owner Bruce Zietz said he would like to aim higher but bows to Mullins’ expertise. “Jeff and I had a conversation (about that once before), and I won, and the horse ran last,” said Zietz, a retired oncologist who lives in West Hills. “He’s been training 40 years and I’ve never trained.”
SANTA ANITA LEADERS
Through Monday
Jockeys / Wins
Umberto Rispoli / 15
Juan Hernandez / 10
Hector Berrios / 9
Kazushi Kimura / 9
Emisael Jaramillo / 9
Edwin Maldonado / 6
Kyle Frey / 6
Mirco Demuro / 6
Trainers / Wins
Mark Glatt / 9
Doug O’Neill / 9
George Papaprodromou / 8
Bob Baffert / 7
Jeff Mullins / 6
Phil D’Amato / 6
(3 tied) / 4
UPCOMING STAKES (SANTA ANITA)
Saturday
• $100,000, Grade III La Cañada Stakes, fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up, 1-1/16 miles
Sunday
• $100,000 Baffle Stakes, 3-year-olds, about 6½ furlongs on turf