Bob Baffert’s Plutarch wins at Santa Anita, jumps into Kentucky Derby picture

ARCADIA — It’s never a shock when Bob Baffert trains the winner of a Kentucky Derby steppingstone race, but Saturday at Santa Anita, it looked like a surprise on the tote board.

Baffert saddled the heavy favorite in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes, only to watch his less highly regarded colt, Plutarch, follow a sharp ride by Florent Geroux to a three-quarter-length victory at 4-1 odds.

Baffert has won eight consecutive runnings and 10 of the past 12 in the $100,000, Grade III Lewis. This was the first of those in which his winner didn’t go off as an odds-on-favorite. Plutarch paid $10.20.

Jeff Mullins’ Intrepido finished second, after battling Plutarch for the lead most of the 1-1/16 miles, to remain among the leaders of the California 3-year-olds division. Tim Yakteen’s Secured Freedom ran a strong race to get third, becoming another horse to pay attention to heading to the April 4 Santa Anita Derby. Baffert’s 6-5 favorite Desert Gate started slowly, flattened out in the stretch, and is a question mark going forward.

It was Plutarch whose stock rose most sharply. He’d had a muddled 2-year-old campaign, finishing a close third to Intrepido and Desert Gate in the American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita while still a maiden last October, but needing five starts to finally get his first win in a turf race at Del Mar in November.

“He keeps getting better every week,” Baffert said. “This is exciting. He’s legit.”

A son of leading North American sire Into Mischief and the 2015 champion 3-year-old filly Stellar Wind, Plutarch is owned by Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith, all of which suggests class.

The time for the 1-mile Lewis, 1:37.02, was slower than the wins by Nysos and Citizen Bull the past two years, but the track Saturday didn’t appear fast.

Geroux, who switched his base from Louisiana to Santa Anita this week, said he made the move partly to find a prospect for the May 2 Kentucky Derby and thinks he may have done that with Plutarch.

“I think the longer (the race) the better,” Geroux said of Plutarch, who’d been ridden by Flavien Prat before this.

Plutarch was ridden aggressively into good position early, outside Intrepido. It didn’t hurt that Desert Gate and Juan Hernandez, expected to have the early lead, were fifth early and really never threatened.

“Juan, what the f— happened?!” Baffert said with mock exasperation outside the winner’s circle.

Baffert said Hernandez told him Desert Gate just “missed the break.”

“He’s a horse that’s so one-dimensional, he’s got to have the lead,” Baffert said of Desert Gate.

Mullins said he was surprised to see Intrepido leading early but knew jockey Hector Berrios was trying to take advantage of a quick start.

“To be off that long (since running fifth in the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile), I’m happy with his race,” Mullins said.

The Lewis was one of four stakes Saturday at Santa Anita.

Splendora ($2.80) ran for the first time since her Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint runaway at Del Mar and looked as good as ever at age 5, starting slowly but moving into contention on the backstretch and taking over in the stretch with Hernandez in the $200,000, Grade II D. Wayne Lukas Stakes.

It was the first time the former Santa Monica Stakes was run as the D. Wayne Lukas, honoring the Hall of Fame trainer who died in 2025. Lukas won the race six times. Baffert has won it eight times.

“When I saw it was renamed the D. Wayne Lukas, I said, ‘Oh, I’m going to (want to) win this one,’ “ said Baffert, whose own Hall of Fame career has mirrored Lukas’ in some ways. “I really miss him.”

Earlier at Santa Anita, 7-year-old El Potente ($4) went to the lead as expected with Berrios and beat Gas Me Up by nearly four lengths to become a repeat winner of the $100,000, Grade III Thunder Road Stakes at 1 mile on turf.

In the nightcap, Antonio Fresu rode the 3-year-old filly Light Won Up ($14.80) to victory for Santa Anita leading trainer Doug O’Neill in the $100,000 Sweet Life Stakes on the downhill turf course on the jockey’s first day back from a foot injury on Dec. 28.

The Lewis capped a busy week on the Kentucky Derby trail.

Also Saturday, Renegade ($4.40) and Irad Ortiz Jr. went wide on the turn to win the 1-1/16-mile Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, an improvement over the Into Mischief offspring’s second-place finish to Paladin in the Remsen. It was trainer Todd Pletcher’s second victory in a Kentucky Derby points race, following Nearly’s win in the Holy Bull, since the disappointment of 2-year-old champion Ted Noffey being sidelined by injury.

Friday, two Derby points races were run after being delayed by freezing weather the previous Saturday. Mark Casse-trained Silent Tactic ($26) and Cristian Torres rallied past Soldier N Dipomat, Buetane and favorite D’Code in the 1-1/16 mile Southwest Stakes in Arkansas, the first stakes win in three tries for the son of Tacitus. Rudy Rodriguez-trained New York-bred Talk to Me Jimmy ($26.54) dominated the 1-1/8-mile Withers Stakes in New York.

As for some of Baffert’s other Derby hopefuls, he said Los Alamitos Futurity winner Litmus Test is being pointed to the March 7 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, and Del Mar Futurity winner Brant is working toward a possible season debut in the March 1 Rebel Stakes in Arkansas.

Next up

Santa Anita’s Sunday card starts early, at 11 a.m., to try to get the nine races in before the Super Bowl.

The Las Virgenes Stakes morning line favors Explora (3-5) and Hernandez to avenge her loss to Super Corredora (3-2) and Hector Berrios in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last fall. Prat is coming west to ride Meaning (7-2), who was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup race.