Spendthrift Farm's Lord Nelson appears set to continue his tear through the top-level sprints on the Southern California circuit in the $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship (gr. I) Oct. 8.
The Bob Baffert-trained son of Pulpit enters the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" event for the TwinSpires Sprint (gr. I) off back-to-back grade I victories in the Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita Park and Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, where his finishing time (1:07.65) broke a stakes record for six furlongs that stood since 1962.
BALAN: Lord Nelson Untouchable in Bing Crosby
Lord Nelson also broke the 1:08 mark in his 2016 debut June 3 at Santa Anita, where he dominated a conditional allowance field and completed the six furlongs in 1:07.94.
There doesn't seem to be much threat to Lord Nelson if he remains in top form. The lone upset candidate appears to be Baffert stablemate and Zayat Stables-owned Jazzy Times, who has also shown a liking for scorching the racetrack, albeit against softer company.
The Discreetly Mine colt broke his maiden in May at Churchill Downs, ran third in a Churchill allowance for his second start, then second in another allowance at Santa Anita.
In an allowance at Del Mar over the summer, however, Jazzy Times looked like a different animal. He dueled through sizzling fractions (:21.76 and :44.18) and pulled away to win by 6 1/2 lengths with a final time for 6 1/2 furlongs of 1:14.42.
The rest of the field is still looking for its first stakes win.
Cautious Giant has earned the graded stakes-placed tag with third-place runs in the Palos Verdes (gr. II) and Kona Gold (gr. II) this year, but the Kristin Mulhall-trained Giant's Causeway gelding's three wins outside of the maiden ranks have all been against allowance competition.
Florida-bred Anytime Anyplace and Alberta-bred All Run have earned stakes-placed labels, but the latter could be ready to fire in his second start off a layoff.
The Richard Baltas-trained son of Flower Alley ended 2015 on a very positive note, with three straight allowance victories sprinting from August to November, but has yet to find success in 2016. All Run began the year with a fourth-place run in the Midnight Lute (gr. III) Jan. 2 at Santa Anita, then came in fifth in the Pirate's Bounty Stakes Sept. 5 off a more than nine-month break.
Santa Anita Park, Saturday, October 08, 2016, Race 4Entries: Santa Anita Sprint Championship S. (G1)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1All Run (AB) Martin Garcia 121 Richard Baltas 12/1 2 2Anytime Anyplace (FL) Victor Espinoza 121 Patrick Gallagher 20/1 3 3Cautious Giant (KY) Tyler Baze 121 Kristin Mulhall 10/1 4 4Lord Nelson (KY) Flavien Prat 125 Bob Baffert 2/5 5 5Jazzy Times (KY) Rafael Bejarano 118 Bob Baffert 9/5
