Parenting. (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.—Parenting is a 3-year-old on the rise for trainer Bob Baffert following an eye-catching win in Sunday’s $100,0000 Affirmed Stakes for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita.
Making just his second start, and first around two turns, Parenting (4-5) raced on or near the lead under Juan Hernandez before powering away in the stretch to win by 7 ½ lengths. Scatify (7-1), who was engaged on the front-end with Parenting, held second by 1 ¼ lengths over comebacking maiden winner Cornell (9-1). Mc Vay (9-5), the morning line favorite for trainer John Shirreffs, finished a head back of Cornell in fourth.
“We have been waiting to get Parenting to go this far,” Baffert said. “There’s really no allowance races for him. This stake just came up perfectly for him. We are proud of him, and it is nice to have a nice fresh 3-year-old for the summer campaign.”
Parenting broke alertly and was part of an early three-horse scrum on the front end through an opening quarter mile in 23.46. Scatify, ridden by Antonio Fresu, would emerge in front down the backstretch and set a half mile fraction of 46.90 seconds with Parenting a half-length back.
Parenting poked a head in front of Scatify midway through the second turn. From that point, it was game over. Parenting kicked clear with little urging and rolled past the wire in a final time of 1:42.57.
“He wanted to take the lead, so I just let him go. Then he relaxed really well,” Hernandez said. “I was a little worried because he came off of a 5 ½-furlong race. They went really fast in the beginning. But he relaxed really well. He is really smart horse, so he made it easy on himself. When I asked him around the far turn, he picked it up and started to go. He took off really well.”
Owned by Gandharvi LLC, Parenting is by Triple Crown winner Justify out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Iadorakid. He cost $750,000 at last year’s OBS April Sale of 2-year-olds in training.
Despite the long-winded pedigree, Parenting graduated going 5 ½ furlongs in his only previous start April 26 at Santa Anita.
Parenting paid $3.60, $2.60 and $2.10. Scatify, trained by John Sadler, returned $4.20 and $4.00. Cornell, also trained by Baffert and ridden by Abel Cedillo, paid $4.40.
Live racing resumes with a special nine-race card Thursday at Santa Anita. First post is 1 p.m. On-track patrons on both Thursday and Friday will receive free parking and admission plus $3 beers and $5 margaritas.
TRAINER QUOTES
BOB BAFFERT, PARENTING, WINNER: “This was his first time going long, and he has speed. He doesn’t know what’s going on. The first turn comes up quick, so I just told Juan, ‘Do what you do, ride like Juan’. Juan is great out of the gate. He gets them into the race. We knew there was going to be pressure from the outside horse, but I think he just showed how talented he is.
“At the three-eighths pole, you really find out how good they really are. My other horse (Cornell) he really needed the out, he came running late, so I’m proud of him. We have been waiting to get Parenting to go this far and there’s really no allowance races for him. This stake just came up perfectly for him. We are proud of him, and it is nice to have a nice fresh three-year-old for the summer campaign.
“His work last time he didn’t like being on the outside. He was trailing a horse and he wasn’t comfortable. We were teaching him to stay with him, but he was working with a nice horse. They went seven-eighths in 1:24 and it takes a really good horse to do that. It takes a nice horse like National Treasure to get a 1:24 here. I mean the top horses, Flightline, he would work 1:24. But Parenting could do it he is pretty good”.
