DEL MAR — The contrast was as stark as the difference between the atmosphere at a racetrack on a Breeders’ Cup day and a winter weekday.
While several dozen happy people poured into the Del Mar winner’s circle late Friday afternoon to join trainer Bob Baffert — who else? — after Citizen Bull’s upset victory in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, trainer Brendan Walsh and jockey Tyler Gaffalione walked up the dimly lit tunnel that leads from the track to the paddock.
By the time they stopped to talk with a pair of reporters, Gaffalione needed just three words to summarize his reaction at the start of the race, when 9-5 favorite East Avenue stumbled badly and instead of being on or near the lead as planned, found himself several lengths off the pace.
“My heart sunk,” Gaffalione said.
The reaction in the winner’s circle was far different.
“We got it!” said jockey Martin Garcia as he hugged a bystander.
Garcia and Citizen Bull led the field for the entire 1-1/16 miles, beating Gaming by 1½ lengths as Baffert, as he so often does in 2-year-old races at Del Mar, finished 1-2. (His third starter, Getaway Car, was edged out for third by Hill Road.)
On a spectacular day with sunny skies and the temperature in the upper 60s, a crowd of 30,982 watched the first five of 14 this year’s Breeders’ Cup races. The remaining nine, including the $7 million Classic, will be contested Saturday.
The racing was mostly formful, with favorites winning three of the five races — the Juvenile Fillies (Immersive, $6), Juvenile Fillies Turf (Lake Victoria, $3.40) and Juvenile Turf (Henri Matisse, $9.80). In the other race, the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Magnum Force ($27) led a sweep of the turf races for Irish-bred horses and trainers.
But there was nothing true to form about the Juvenile after East Avenue stumbled. That left Baffert’s trio to set the pace and Citizen Bull, a son of Into Mischief purchased for $675,000 as a yearling, cruised through a half-mile in 47.89 seconds and six furlongs in 1:12.21. Gaming, the Del Mar Futurity winner in September, made a run on the far turn but Citizen Bull pulled away at the top of the stretch and won in 1:43.07.
Sent off at nearly 16-1 odds, Citizen Bull paid $33.80, the highest return of the day (the Baffert exacta paid $71.10 for every dollar bet). He earned $1.04 million for his second Grade I win of the fall, almost certainly wrapping up 2-year-old championship honors. And while he might not be the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby — East Avenue will still be highly regarded by handicappers — Citizen Bull will be pointed in that direction now that Baffert is eligible again to race at Churchill Downs after the track suspended him for three years in the wake of Medina Spirit’s disqualification for a failed drug test in 2021.
Asked what it means to have a Derby horse again, Baffert said: “It means we don’t have to discuss that situation again. That’s what it means. Right now, it’s too far out, and you really don’t know if you have a Derby horse until about January, February. Things happen. So I don’t get too far ahead of myself. I just focus on what’s in front of me this week or next week. It’s good to be in the conversation. But it’s still a long ways off.”
Walsh and Gaffalione will be heading down that road as well with East Avenue, who won his first two starts by 13¼ lengths before finishing ninth Friday in the field of 10.
“He was standing pretty good,” Gaffalione said of the start. “… I just think he outbroke himself. He really fired out of there. … I think he just got a little ahead of himself.”
Walsh: “It’s disappointing but he’ll come back a very nice 3-year-old. You can’t worry about stuff like that. It happens.”
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