“He’s doing really well,” Bob Baffert said by telephone from
his Santa Anita base Sunday morning in an update on Liaison, who gave the Hall
of Fame trainer a record sixth victory in the $750,000 CashCall Futurity at
Hollywood Park Saturday.
Liaison, recording his third straight victory under jockey
Rafael Bejarano, hopes to follow in the giant footsteps of Baffert’s five
previous winners--Real Quiet, Captain Steve, Point Given, Pioneerof the Nile
and Lookin at Lucky--who collectively went on to earn a Horse of the Year title
and three Eclipse Awards while capturing one Kentucky Derby, three Preakness
Stakes, one Belmont Stakes, one Dubai World Cup, one Hollywood Gold Cup and two
Santa Anita Derbies, among others.
Baffert said Liaison, a son of Indian Charlie owned by
Arnold Zetcher, would probably resurface at Santa Anita. “Nothing definite
yet,” said Baffert. “We all need to sit down and see how he’s doing. He’s on
the Derby
program.”
Baffert also has several other promising colts on the Triple
Crown trail, including Sky Kingdom and Drill, the fourth and ninth-place
finishers, respectively, in the Futurity.
“They all came back in good shape,” said Baffert, who also
has Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint winner Secret Circle and Hollywood Prevue
Stakes winner So Brilliant in his barn.
The Futurity, continuing to serve as an important barometer
for future greatness, also showed the significance of prep races at the same
distance over this track. Liaison and Rousing Sermon, who finished a neck back,
finished in the same order in the Real Quiet Stakes prep at 1 1/16 miles on
Cushion Track a month earlier. A week earlier, Killer Graces and Charm the
Maker finished one-two in the $402,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes for fillies,
reversing the order of their finish in the Sharp Cat Stakes prep.