Baffert Doesn’t Slow Down

Trainer Bob Baffert’s 2-year-old steamroller stormed into Kentucky on Saturday and flattened a round of foes.

Baffert, who not only won Wednesday’s Del Mar Futurity with Icecoldbeeratreds but also finished second, third and fourth in the race, saddled undefeated Vindication for a six-length win in the $100,000 Kentucky Cup Juvenile. Earlier on the card at Turfway Park, Baffert’s filly, Atlantic Ocean, won the $100,000 Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies by 2 1/2 lengths. A heavy favorite, Vindication paid $4.20, but Atlantic Ocean’s win was a mild upset. She paid $9.80 while the 11-10 favorite, Ruby’s Reception, finished second.

Baffert, who has won eight Triple Crown races--three Kentucky Derbies, four Preaknesses and one Belmont Stakes--since 1997, will go for a three-state hat trick today when he sends out Truckle Feature in the $200,000 Belmont Futurity.

Vindication had to contend with a riderless horse at Turfway when longshot Crowned King dumped his rider leaving the gate and still completed the course.

Vindication, bought at auction for $2.15 million by Satish Sanan’s Padua Stables, ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:46 3/5. Private Gold finished second and Tito’s Beau was third.

Vindication’s first two wins came in sprints at Del Mar.

“I wanted to give him some adversity by exposing him to two turns,” Baffert said. “I lost track of him when they went down the backstretch, but when he got to the quarter pole I picked him up and knew he was all right.”

With Vindication, Icecoldbeeratreds and others, Baffert figures to be loaded for the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Arlington Park on Oct. 26.

Mike Smith, who finished eighth in the jockey standings at Del Mar, will be picking his spots until the Oak Tree season at Santa Anita starts Oct. 2, and Smith couldn’t have been in a better spot Saturday. After riding Atlantic Ocean and Vindication to victory, Smith picked up his third stakes win aboard Pure Prize, who won the Kentucky Cup Classic, at $400,000 the richest race on the card.

Favored Dollar Bill rallied but was a length short of Pure Prize at the wire. Hero’s Tribute was third. Pure Prize, paying $16.80, races for the Dinny Phipps family and trainer Shug McGaughey.

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Pat Day rode the other two Kentucky Cup winners, clicking with Trip in the $200,000 Turfway Breeders’ Cup and Day Trader in the $150,000 Sprint.... At Belmont Park, Mandy’s Gold, at 8-1, sat off the speed and beat You by 2 1/4 lengths in the $300,000 Ruffian Handicap; Carson Hollow won the $100,000 Floral Park Handicap; Boston Common captured the $150,000 Jerome Handicap; and Startac, winless for 13 months, ended a seven-race streak by winning the $200,000 Belmont Breeders’ Cup Handicap. In the Ruffian, favored Raging Fever was off the board for the first time in almost two years.... At Arlington Park, Little Treasure, trained by Laura de Seroux, won the $150,000 Pucker Up.... At Fairplex Park, the $10,000 winner-take-all mule match race went to Black Ruby by a half-length over Taz. There was more than $71,000 bet in the win pool, with Black Ruby paying $2.60 for $2.... Sigfreto won for the first time in seven starts by taking the Phil D. Shepherd Stakes.