ARCADIA — Greenwich Village, already a winner on dirt and turf and around one and two turns in his first four starts, may take on a new challenge after getting up by a nose in the Pasadena Stakes with jockey Juan Hernandez for trainer Bob Baffert at Santa Anita on Sunday.
Greenwich Village (who paid $5.40) edged Medici, with Iriseach a close third, in a 1-mile turf race for 3-year-olds, stretching out after a narrow victory in the Baffle Stakes downhill grass sprint last month.
Now, Baffert said, he could send Greenwich Village to the March 21 Jeff Ruby Steaks, a 1-1/8-mile race on the synthetic track at Turfway Park in Kentucky that awards qualifying points for the May 2 Kentucky Derby. The colt’s previous try on the Derby trail resulted in a fifth-place finish behind winner So Happy in the San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita. Before that, he broke his maiden in a main-track sprint at Los Alamitos.
“The quality is there. He’s just figuring it out,” Baffert said of the son of multiple Grade I stakes winner Quality Road and the Australian sprinting mare Houtzen.
The win in the Pasadena was the first for Baffert, who dominates many stakes in California.
Later Saturday, the 5-year-old mare Garden Party was euthanized after falling with jockey Mirco Demuro as the field crossed the main track in the ninth race, a downhill turf sprint. The fatal injury was the third of 2026 in a race at Santa Anita, where another three horses have died in training. The total marks an increase over the same period in recent years.
Demuro was not injured.
Nobody hit the pick-six for the second day in a row, creating a $198,741 carryover for Friday.
Hernandez rode three winners Saturday to take a 27-26 lead over Kazushi Kimura in the Santa Anita jockey standings.