Gary and Mary West's Power Broker made short work of the field in the $250,000 FrontRunner Stakes (gr. I) for 2-year-olds at Santa Anita Park Sept. 29, drawing away to win easily over Know More and Capo Bastone (VIDEO) .
Trained by Bob Baffert, who won the grade I Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies with Executiveprivilege in the previous race, Power Broker broke his maiden in his fourth start. Ridden by Raphael Bejarano, Power Broker rated in third for six furlongs before blowing by the leaders to win the 1 1/16-mile FrontRunner, a Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" race for the Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I).
The race was formerly the Norfolk Stakes.
Power Broker, by Pulpit out of the Wild Again mare Shop Again, was bred in Kentucky by Jamm Ltd. He was a $360,000 purchase at the 2011 Keeneland September yearling sale.
Power Broker, who paid $12.60 to win, rated in third behind Carving and Know More through moderate fractions of :23.19, :47.53, and 1:12.45. By the time the horses hit the one-mile marker in 1:37.89, Power Broker, who made a sweeping move on the far turn in the 1 1/16-mile race, was long gone.
Power Broker won by 6 1/2 lengths in 1:44.44. Know More was second, a half-length in front of Capo Bastone. The winner was the third choice behind Know More and Capo Bastone.
Power Broker, second by a neck to Dry Summer in the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf at Del Mar Sept. 5, entered the FrontRunner with two one-mile races under his belt but no victories. However, the colt had notraced on dirt in his three previous starts.
"This is really exciting to win a grade I stakes with a 2-year-old maiden," Gary West said. "Bob (Baffert) said he would probably do better as a dirt horse."
Power Broker finished fourth and third, respectively, in maiden races at Del Mar before his victory at Santa Anita.
"I was really high on this horse before we went to Del Mar," Baffert said. "I thought he was a top horse. He let me down when he ran (at Del Mar), and I was a little disappointed. Then he came back and he didn't work that well. Then he worked really well the other day.
"I was thinking of putting him on the grass. After that last race, I switched him up. It worked out."
When asked about the colt's prospects for the Triple Crown trail in 2013, Baffert said: "It's too early."
