Hughes Gives Baffert Del Mar Futurity Win Number 20
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Hughes wins the Del Mar Futurity at Del Mar
Bob Baffert. Del Mar Futurity (G1). Wash. Rinse. Repeat. The very grand total is now 20 wins in 31 years for the precocious colts trained by the Hall of Famer, who treats the marquee 2-year-old race of the summertime season by the Pacific like his very own sandbox. Visitors are welcome, but don't get your hopes up.
The latest name to go up on the Bob's Big Futurity Board is Hughes🔥 , a calmly professional son of Into Mischief who toyed with the opposition on the muggy Sept. 6 afternoon just long enough to make things interesting. After 6 of the 7 furlongs had been run, the Pavel colt Phone Booth —one of three in the field of five trained by Doug O'Neill—was still within hailing distance of the 1-to-5 favorite. But then, as Baffert hoped, the Hughes he already knew was about to kick in.
"That's the thing about this colt," Baffert said. "He does most of his running at the end."
The end came swiftly, as Hughes and jockey Juan Hernandez took full command in the final stages to draw off by 4 3/4 lengths in 1:22.57. The final time did not threaten the stakes record of 1:20.99 set by the Baffert-trained Cave Rock in 2022, and it was more than a full second off the 1:21.67 of American Pharoah in 2014, the trainer's most famous winner. But it fit nicely with the other 17.
"It all started with Silver Charm," Baffert said, summoning the name of the Hall of Famer, still alive and well at Old Friends Equine in Kentucky 30 years after his victory in the 1996 Futurity.
Even with such a bounty of Futurity data at his disposal, Baffert prefers to live in the moment with the young horse of the hour. Hughes is now 3-for-3, following his maiden win in June at Los Alamitos Race Course and his front-running romp in the Best Pal Stakes (G3) earlier in the Del Mar meet.
"We knew the inside horse would have speed," Baffert said, referring to High Pronto , another of the O'Neill trio. "My horse was able to rate off him a little bit, which was good to see.
"As for my other horse, I'm not sure what was going on with him," Baffert added, shifting to the impressive maiden winner Domus , second choice at 3-to-1. "He looked like he was getting rank. Then he just kind of lost interest."
Hughes raced between High Pronto and Domus down the long backstretch straightaway and into the far turn before one peeled away and then the other. Phone Booth and jockey Umberto Rispoli took advantage of the situation to close in along the rail, but the conclusion was already foregone.
"I never hit him," said Hernandez, although he did give Hughes a left-handed tap to keep his colt focused through the wire.
Dang Son , a two-turn winner at the meet, overtook Domus late to give O'Neill a 2-3 finish in the $300,000 event. Hughes, a $675,000 Keeneland September yearling, banked $180,000 for his ownership group, comprised of Front Row Club, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Bashor Racing, Albaugh Family Stables, Robert E. Masterson, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan. Not that they need the help, but Hughes did earn a $30,000 Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen Bonus Series award toward fees for the Oct. 30 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Keeneland.
"It might take me a while to name all 20 of my Futurity winners," Baffert said as he reflected on his daunting accumulation. "But this is the biggest winner's circle group by far."
Hughes is a February foal out of the Union Rags mare K P Dreamin , who hit the board in a pair of grade 1 stakes during her 2-year-old season of 2019. This is her third of three foals by Into Mischief.