48TH SOUTHWEST STAKES

Baffert’s bonanza

Oaklawn lucrative checkpoint on Derby road

Rafael Bejarano and Bob Baffert-trained Secret Circle (9) edged Jake Mo to win one of the two divisions of the Southwest Stakes last year at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. Since 2010, Baffert’s horses have won the Southwest and Rebel Stakes three times and the Arkansas Derby once.
Rafael Bejarano and Bob Baffert-trained Secret Circle (9) edged Jake Mo to win one of the two divisions of the Southwest Stakes last year at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. Since 2010, Baffert’s horses have won the Southwest and Rebel Stakes three times and the Arkansas Derby once.

— Lynn Whiting didn’t hesitate when asked if Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has the horse to beat in the $300,000 Grade III Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds at OaklawnPark.

“He always has the horse to beat,” said Whiting, best known as the trainer of 1992 Kentucky Derby winner Lil E. Tee. “He doesn’t follow an empty wagon.”

After sweeping Oaklawn’s three-race series of graded Kentucky Derby prep races last year, Baffert tries to continue his local domination today when he sends out Super Ninety Nine in the Southwest, which highlights a special 10-race holiday card.

Racing begins at 1 p.m ., with probable post time for the Southwest, the ninth race, 5:09 p.m.

Oaklawn will also hold its annual $55,000 progressive cash giveaway today.

The Southwest, lengthened from a mile to 1 1-16 miles this year, has drawn a field of 10, including the 1-2-3 finishers from the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Jan. 21 at Oaklawn.

But the 7-5 program favorite is Super Ninety Nine, who is charged with maintaining West Coast supremacy in the Central time zone.

Since 2008, horses based in Southern California have won 11 of 16 graded stakes races Oaklawn has offered for 3-year-olds, many of whom had Kentucky Derby aspirations.

Baffert has led the assault, bankrolling more than $1.5 million in purse earnings the past three years with seven victories, the last of which was Bodemeister’s tour de force in the $1 million Grade I Arkansas Derby in April.

“It’s been phenomenal,” Baffert assistant Jim Barnes said 1 after Bodemister’s 9 /2-length romp. “To ship in, back-and forth, back-and-forth - it’s never easy to do and it takes a real good horse to do it.”

How good is Super Ninety Nine?

He is a son of Pulpit, the fourth-place finisher in the 1997 Kentucky Derby.

Super Ninety Nine, who has won 2 of 4 career starts, punched his ticket to the Southwest with a 3 1/4-length victory in a first-level allowance race Jan. 31 at Santa Anita near Los Angeles.

Super Ninety Nine covered a mile in 1:35.11 to earn a 100 Beyer Speed Figure.

Beyer Speed Figures are a numerical representation of a horse’s performance, based on the final time and the inherent speed over the track on which the race was run. The higher the Beyer Speed Figure, the better the performance

Rafael Bejarano, who rode both of Baffert’s winners in last year’s split Southwest, has the mount on Super Ninety Nine.

“However you want to call them, Mr. Baffert has, what, 10 to chose from and kind of handpicks the ones he thinks fits this area,” Oaklawn racing secretary Pat Pope said. “His past performances show he sure knows the ones to send. That’s all I can tell you. If you look at his PPs, he sure looks like he knows which one to send to handle this track.”

Smarty Jones winner Will Take Charge is trying to give Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas his second Southwest victory.

Lukas’ Big Sur upset future Triple Crown race winners Lil E. Tee (Kentucky Derby) andPine Bluff (Preakness) in the 1992 Southwest.

Lukas’ only other victories in what are now Oaklawn’s graded stakes for 3-year-olds came in the 1984 Arkansas Derby (Althea), 1985 Arkansas Derby (Tank’s Prospect) and the 1989 Rebel (Manastash Ridge).

Baffert - since 2010 - has won the Southwest three times, Rebel three times and Arkansas Derby once.

“Those horses were not only tough when they got here, they were tough when they left here, too.” said Lukas, who is now based at Oaklawn in the winter. “Those guys that are bringing them, like Baffert, they’re good horsemen and they get them ready. If they’ve got something to work with, they’ll get them out here.”

Rick Lee’s analysis of The Southwest Stakes

Purse $300,000, 1 1/16 Miles, 3-year olds.

SUPER NINETY NINE convincingly defeated entry-level allowance rivals in a fast clocking at Santa Anita, and the presence of regular rider Rafael Bejarano implies trainer Bob Baffert has high hopes for the colt. ALWAYS IN A TIZ may have needed a couple more strides when beaten a neck in the Smarty Jones, and the beaten post-time favorite is bred to improve as distances increase. BIG LUTE is ambitiously placed in a second career start, but his debut was extremely impressive and he recorded a subsequent bullet workout.

Sports, Pages 17 on 02/18/2013

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