Nysos gamely over Nevada Beach, Santa Anita Park Photo
Santa Anita Park Press
ARCADIA, CA —Grade I-winning stablemates Nysos and Nevada Beach put on a show for the opening day crowd at Santa Anita Park Sunday in the Grade II, $200,000 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes going 1 1/16 miles on dirt. Following a thrilling stretch duel, Nysos edged Nevada Beach by a head on the wire to prevail as the heavy 1-5 favorite. The top two finishers are both trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.
With Flavien Prat aboard, Nysos broke from the inside post and saved ground along the rail while tracking pacesetters Vodka Vodka (10-1) and Bartholdy (23-1). Both Nysos and Nevada Beach (9-2) circled around the two pacesetters heading into the stretch and raced side-by-side all the way to the finish. For Nysos, it was his second-straight photo finish win over a stablemate. In last month’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar, Nysos also won by a head over Citizen Bull.
Bartholdy, ridden by Tyler Baze for trainer Steve Knapp, was another 4 ¼ lengths back in third with Vodka Vodka—ridden by Kent Desormeaux for trainer Aggie Ordonez—completing the superfect Nysos won in a time of 1:42.36 following fractions of 24.00, 48.44, 1:12.26 and 1:36.43. Owned by Baoma Corp., Nysos is a 4-year-old colt by Nyquist who sold for $550,000 at the 2023 OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training. He improved to 8: 7-1-0 with $1,238,500 in earnings. Also listed on the owner’s line for Nysos as lessee’s are Mrs. John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael B. Tabor of the international Coolmore operation.
Nysos paid $2.40, $2.10 and $2.10. Nevada Beach, ridden by Juan Hernandez, returned $2.60 and $2.10. Bartholdy paid $3.20 to show.
