Triple Crown prep season begins at Santa Anita Park Jan. 5 in the $100,000 Sham Stakes (Gr.3), and as the steps toward the first Saturday in May progress, the presence of horses from the barn of trainer Bob Baffert will be imposing.
With the likes of undefeated grade 1 winners Game Winner and Improbable still on the bench, and several other talented juveniles—now 3—residing in Barn 5 in the Santa Anita stable area, a pair of homebreds will carry Baffert's flag in the Sham, a race he's won a record five times since it began in 2001.
The favorite for the one-mile Sham figures to be Godolphin's Coliseum, a gray/roan Tapit colt who won his Nov. 17 debut at Del Mar by 6 3/4 lengths. That race was at seven furlongs, however, and Baffert admitted two turns will be a significant test for the colt who may have some growing up to do.
"The first time going two turns, you want to see how they react," the trainer said. "He's a good horse, he's a fast horse, but he's got to get around there. I don't see him having a problem, but he's got to show it."
Baffert said he and his staff have made a concerted effort to get Coliseum to settle during training ahead of his second start, but showing that ability in the morning is different than showing it in the afternoon.
"He's improving, and we've been doing a lot of work with him, but he does things pretty easily," Baffert said. "He doesn't get hot or anything, but Tapits he wants to get it going, get it on. Going into the first turn, it'll probably confuse him a little bit, but we'll see how he reacts.
"I don't think he'll have a problem getting two turns, but it's how he does it."
The second Baffert entry, Three Chimneys Farm's Much Better, has experience around two turns but doesn't quite have the buzz of his stablemate.
A Pioneerof the Nile ridgling, Much Better won his 6 1/2-furlong debut by 3 1/4 lengths on the Del Mar dirt Sept. 1, then moved to the grass to finish second in the Zuma Beach Stakes before a last-place run in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (Gr.1T).
Baffert said Much Better is "better on dirt," and he was going to run him in the grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity (he ran 1-2 anyway with Improbable and Mucho Gusto Dec. 8), but an illness knocked the ridgling out of consideration.
"He got a little sick, but he's been working really well (since)," Baffert said. "He's a good-looking horse, he's doing well and working really well. Two turns is his thing."
Looking to spoil the Baffert party in the Sham is a pair of maiden winners from the barn of Peter Miller Los Al Futurity fifth (and runner-up to Mucho Gusto in the grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes Nov. 17) Savagery and last-out winner Gray Magician.
Trainer Keith Desormeaux will also send out a pair in Sueno, who won the Gold Rush Stakes Dec. 1 at Golden Gate Fields, and last-out maiden claiming winner Easy Shot.
Gunmetal Gray, who has finished behind Game Winner in his past two starts (fifth in the grade 1 Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile and second in the grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes), rounds out the field.
Credit:BloodHorse