Graded stakes top-to-bottom on Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup card
At 1h06, on November 2, 2024 • By Del Mar
Nine Breeders’ Cup races are slated for Saturday at Del Mar with three races on the undercard, two of them top-of-the-line affairs fitting for a Breeders’ Cup card. The first is the G3 Bayakoa which pits fillies and mares in a one mile test on the main track.
Trainer Bob Baffert brings two horses to the dance. One is the impressive winner of the G3 Torrey Pines at Del Mar this past summer. Hope Road defeated stablemate and Santa Anita Oaks winner Nothing Like You by five lengths on Pacific Classic Day. She hasn’t raced since but Baffert says she’s doing well.
“I was debating whether to run her in the Filly and Mare Sprint,” Baffert says. “She’s slowly developing and I’m pointing her for the La Brea in December. She ran well here last time.”
She’s a perfect three-for-three in 2024, breaking her maiden in June by 5 ½ lengths, winning an entry level allowance race in August by 5 ¼ lengths and then the Torrey Pines when Baffert stretched her out to a mile.
The ‘other Baffert horse’ is Show Card, winner of the $100,000 Tranquility Lake at Del Mar and the $125,000 Dark Mirage at Los Alamitos.
“She’s been running well but her numbers aren’t as good,” Baffert notes. “But she’s improving and she’s been winning easily so we’ll give her a chance.”
Show Card won the Tranquility Lake by 10 lengths.
The veteran mare Desert Dawn is entered in the Bayakoa in what might be her final race before she heads off to the breeding shed. She won the last time she ran in a Grade 3, taking the La Canada at Santa Anita in January.
“Looks like a race finally with some pace for her to set up for her late kick,” trainer Philip D’Amato says.
The G3 Bayakoa is the second race on the Saturday Breeders’ Cup card. The probable post time is 10:40 a.m.
