ARCADIA — Bob Baffert often is able to run more than one horse in a big race, and the Hall of Fame trainer knows from experience there’s more than one way for the result to be disappointing.
Take last weekend. Baffert sent the two tote-board favorites and a longshot into the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita and watched Barnes, Rodriguez and Mellencamp get out-finished by Michael McCarthy-trained Journalism. An hour later, he tried a pair of horses in the Santa Anita Handicap only to see New King and Mirahmadi come in second to last and last in an eight-horse field behind winner Locked.
Saturday, in the $300,000, Grade I Beholder Mile for fillies and mares, Baffert’s tag-team approach went more according to plan.
Four-year-old Cavalieri, ridden hard by Juan Hernandez, stayed unbeaten with a three-quarter-length victory, while 5-year-old Richi, benefiting from Antonio Fresu’s front-running tactics, finished a strong second in a field of six.
Cavalieri returned $4.20 to $2 win bettors, and the all-Baffert exacta paid $6.10 for $1.
The final time of 1:34.96 was the fastest of the 10 times this race has been contested at 1 mile.
Tarifa and Hoosier Philly, two shippers from out of state, finished third and fourth, far behind the winner. Alpha Bella, second to Cavalieri in the Grade III La Canada Stakes in January, was fifth.
“Obviously, those two (Baffert horses) are pretty talented,” said Katie Tolbert, the assistant to trainer Brad Cox, who saddled Tarifa.
Cavalieri, a daughter of Nyquist, has won all four of her starts for owner Speedway Stables LLC, a partnership of Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner.
This victory, in the race formally known as the B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile, made Cavalieri a Grade I winner.
It also was Baffert’s first Grade I win of 2025. That’s not as unusual as it may sound because Baffert’s focus early in any year is on Kentucky Derby prospects, and 3-year-olds don’t have Grade I stakes to run in this early.
The Beholder was fast from start to finish. Richi, who’d won races as long as 1 ¼ miles in her native Chile, had run in sprints in her three previous starts for Baffert, winning the 6-furlong Las Flores Stakes before settling for third behind Kopion in the 7-furlong Santa Monica. Richi opened a one-length lead turning for home, with Cavalieri under urging in second.
“Richi, Bob’s other filly, is a really nice filly,” Hernandez said. “I was tracking her, and to be honest, I was riding hard and I wanted her to pick it up. When I started to make my move, (Richi) started to make her move too, so we both moved at the same time.
“My filly just gave me another gear at the eighth pole, and she won the race. She is getting better, and she showed that today.”
Cavalieri got the lead with 100 yards to go.
Baffert said he has developed Cavalieri slowly and expects her to keep improving.
“Down the backside, I knew they were going really fast. They were running the whole way. (Richi) was still running (at the finish). (Cavalieri) just went by her. It was a throwdown,” Baffert said.
“I’m just glad it worked out.”
In the $100,000 San Simeon Stakes, a downhill turf sprint for 4-year-olds and up, Air Force Red ($11.80) and Armando Ayuso rallied for a one-length win over 27-1 Lovesick Blues, rewarding trainer Leonard Powell’s decision to bring the 7-year-old back a week after he finished last in the Grade I Frank E. Kilroe Mile behind winner Formidable Man.
It was another stakes win for part-owner Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which won last week’s Big ’Cap with Locked and San Felipe Stakes with Journalism.