Excellent Meeting Getting Better for Baffert

Trainer Bob Baffert didn’t think there was much chance Excellent Meeting would lose the $200,000 Las Virgenes Stakes Saturday at Santa Anita.

“I thought the only way she could get beat was if they had loaded her into the [starting] gate backward,” Baffert said after Excellent Meeting, the 1-10 favorite, won by four lengths in her 1999 debut.

Excellent Meeting is one of two top-quality 3-year-old fillies in Baffert’s barn, the other being probable 2-year-old champion Silverbulletday. Tout Charmant, also trained by Baffert, finished second in the Las Virgenes, nine lengths ahead of Weekend Squall. Here’s To You, the 9-1 second choice, and Holywood Picture completed the order of finish.

“[Excellent Meeting is] pretty sensational, and running 1-2 is really nice,” said Baffert, who won with Exploit in the San Vicente Stakes for 3-year-olds last Saturday and has seven horses considered to be Kentucky Derby contenders. “We just want to keep her healthy and going in the right direction. We’ve just got to enjoy the wins and keep her happy. This was a good prep for her.”

Excellent Meeting, after breaking from the inside under jockey Kent Desormeaux, bided her time while her stablemate set the pace, then got through along the rail around the turn. From that point it was just a matter of how much she would win by and what the final time would be. The daughter of General Meeting completed the mile in 1:35 1/5.

“From [the three-sixteenths pole to the finish] she did everything without much encouragement,” Desormeaux said. There are no plans to run Excellent Meeting against males in the near future, but the competition will get tougher when she races against Honest Lady, the unbeaten daughter of Seattle Slew trained by Bobby Frankel, in the Santa Anita Oaks on March 14.

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Belle’s Flag is the 7-5 favorite against five other mares in the $200,000 Santa Maria Handicap today.

The rest of the field, from the inside out, includes India Divina, Tuxedo Junction, Sonja’s Faith, Victory Stripes and Ualoaa Lani.

Belle’s Flag has won five of seven starts over the Santa Anita main track.

Earlier on the card, Finder’s Gold, one of Baffert’s hopes for the Kentucky Derby, is the 7-5 favorite in an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles. The field includes the John Shirreffs-trained entry of Lethal Instrument and High Wire Act, No Cal Bread, who has won two in a row for trainer Randy Bradshaw, Outstanding Hero and Joy To Me And You.

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey Jorge Chavez won six times during Gulfstream Park’s 11-race program at Hallandale, Fla. Jerry Bailey won seven races at Gulfstream in 1995. . . . A horse Chavez didn’t ride--Frisk Me Now--held off Young At Heart, trained by Charlie Whittingham, to win the $200,000 Gulfstream Park Breeders’ Cup Sprint Handicap. Frisk Me Now, ridden by Eddie King Jr., paid $26.20 in winning for the 10th time in 31 starts for owner Carol Dender and trainer Robert Durso. . . . Trainer Doug Peterson was fined $1,000 for betting on another horse in a race in which he had a starter. According to steward Pete Pedersen, Peterson cashed a $3 Pick Three worth $1,290.30 after Classic Sham won the 10th race last Oct. 11 during the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita. Peterson started Indy’s Special, who finished 10th at nearly 97-1, in the race. . . . Jockey Laffit Pincay won twice at Santa Anita and now has 8,700 wins, leaving him 133 victories behind all-time leader Bill Shoemaker. . . . There was a minus show pool of $85,624.13 on the Las Virgenes.