Iliad embarks on his next odyssey in the San Felipe Stakes

A year ago, the West Coast crop of 3-year-olds for the Kentucky Derby had already started to shake out.

Nyquist was undefeated and headed to the Florida Derby for an early showdown with Mohaymen.

Mor Spirit was developing nicely for trainer Bob Baffert, despite some fussiness on the training track.

And Exaggerator, who had lost a rousing battle with Nyquist in the San Vicente Stakes, had trainer Keith Desormeaux wondering if the colt could run 1 ¼ miles.

This year, heading into Saturday’s $400,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, it’s anybody’s guess who might be the Derby horse.

“It’s short on numbers but deep in talent,” trainer Doug O’Neill said of the seven-horse San Felipe field. O’Neill trained Nyquist last year and has Iliad for this campaign.

The favorite is Mastery, who is unbeaten in three races for Baffert. This will be his first start of the year after easily winning the Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 10. Mike Smith is the jockey.

John Shirreffs has Gormley, winner of three out of four including the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 7. He is owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, who raced Zenyatta and Giacamo, and is ridden by Victor Espinoza.

And then there is Iliad, who used to be in Baffert’s barn until the beginning of the year. He has won two of three, including the San Vicente on Feb. 12, but hasn’t run two turns yet. Flavien Prat, the leading rider at the meet, will be aboard.

O’Neill acquired Iliad when owner Kaleem Shah acrimoniously moved his horses from Baffert’s barn to O’Neill and Art Sherman, trainer of California Chrome.

Shah has said he will miss his friendship with Baffert but notes that he’s sure neither of them even think about it anymore.

“The way I feel today is you have to move on at some point,” Shah said. “You’ve heard the song, que sera, sera.”

At the time, Baffert addressed the break up in a release: “We agreed to disagree. We had a good run, but now it’s over.”

O’Neill admits to some stress when Iliad started for him in the San Vicente, especially after the colt’s strong performance in his last race for Baffert.

“I think when you get a horse from any barn — and the Baffert barn is special — and the horse won impressively for the previous connections, there is added pressure,” O’Neill said.

“You don’t want to screw him up. You want to stay out of the way and not impede his progress. He came to us after a huge [maiden] win and we just wanted him to maintain.”

He did better than maintain, winning the seven-furlong race by 3 ½ lengths.

O’Neill, who has a barn of about 90 horses and two Kentucky Derby wins, says Iliad might be his best 3-year-old this year.

“I think so,” O’Neill said. “But it’s hard to say because he hasn’t returned yet. We’re enthusiastic that he’ll carry his San Vicente performance to two turns. So we’ll see.”

The San Felipe is 1 1/16 miles, which will be followed by the Santa Anita Derby on April 8 at 1 1/8 miles and then the Kentucky Derby on May 6 at 1 ¼ miles.

The three horses will be as close on the break as they are expected to be on the tote board.

Mastery (6-5 odds) will break from the fourth position, while Gormley (9-5) will be in No. 5 and Iliad (5-2) in No. 6.

O’Neill is known for his boundless enthusiasm about pretty much everything, but Shah is a little more circumspect.

“I’m not yet excited,” Shah said. “I’m cautiously optimistic that [Iliad] can show the promise he has by winning on Saturday. Then it’s time to get excited.

“I wish he had a little more seasoning like Dortmund had [as a 3-year-old] but that’s how the cookie crumbles for this fellow. He has two races in his 2-year-old season. Hopefully he can continue [to improve].”

Dortmund, who was switched from Baffert to Sherman, will be making his grass debut Saturday in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile.

While Iliad has proven he’s exceptional on the track, back in the barn he just blends in.

“If you didn’t look in on him, you wouldn’t know he was around,” O’Neill said. “He’s not a showoff, not real excitable. But he’s shown us that he has the mind-set to move into bigger, tougher water. When you put him on the track, even if it’s a simple gallop, he covers a lot of ground.”

Eight-and-a-half furlongs is the ground he needs to cover Saturday, and it’s expected he’ll have a lot of company.

john.cherwa@latimes.com

@jcherwa

UPDATES:

2:30 p.m. Story was corrected to make the race the San Felipe Stakes not Handicap.

Story was originally published on March 9 at 4:10 p.m.