Baltas Ready for First Oaks Start With Mokat

Richard Baltas left Kentucky and returned home to Southern California decades ago, because he couldn't handle the cold.

So May 5, a day before his first Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) start, the trainer was huddled around a heater in Barn 43 on a chilly morning at Churchill Downs.

"Let's go inside," the 54-year-old horseman said after helping his groom out with Oaks longshot Mokat's bath, to expedite the process and get out of the chill. "It's warmer."

The last time Baltas was at Churchill with an Oaks horse was back in 1992, as an assistant to Richard Mandella, when Golden Treat ran fourth under his care. This is his first Oaks on his own.

"This is my first time here in a long time," Baltas said. "Next year, maybe we'll get a Derby horse. Things have been going good."

They're going very good, in fact, for Baltas—who has gone from on-and-off assistant gigs to a full-fledged stable of about 60 horses in Southern California. The trajectory for the Baltas barn has been consistently trending upward in recent years. In 2013, horses he trained won 19 races and earned $742,032, both career highs. In 2014, he won 42 races and earned more than $1.9 million. In 2015, he won 74 races, earned more than $3.7 million, and won his second grade I with Spanish Queen in the American Oaks (gr. IT).

But he increasingly has a desire to run horses in classic races and the top events around the country, and the Oaks is a good step forward.

"These are the kind of horses you want," Baltas said of his 30-1 morning-line longshot in the Oaks. "You want Saturday afternoon horses. Somebody told me that a long time ago."

This Saturday afternoon horse has yet to truly break through, even though she did break her maiden over the Del Mar grass on the first day of the weekend in October. A lanky daughter of Uncle Mo  , Mokat has raced in three contests on turf—she finished second in the Jimmy Durante (gr. IIIT) at Del Mar in November and came in third in a Santa Anita Park allowance in February—but has placed in graded events over the Santa Anita dirt in her last two starts, both behind undefeated Songbird.

Baltas still thinks she might be best on grass, but was encouraged with a second-place finish behind Songbird in a sloppy Santa Anita Oaks (gr. I), a result that punched their ticket to the Kentucky Oaks.

"She ran second in a grade I and that put us in and raised the value of the horse, but (jockey) Flavien (Prat) came back and said, 'She ran good, but she really didn't handle the track.'" Baltas remembered. "She just wasn't getting a hold of it, and it looks like she's getting a hold of this."

How Mokat has been training up to the race at Churchill is notable. In open gallops earlier in the week, she was one of the most visually impressive horses on the track during the special session for Oaks and Derby runners, eating up ground with long, extended strides.

"Today I gave her an easy gallop, but earlier in the week, I gave her a couple good open gallops and she covering a lot of ground," Baltas said. "She always looks pretty good, but for some reason, here, she's even better."

With one horse on the grounds, Baltas is getting a bit of vacation from the hustle and bustle of his busy barn at Santa Anita, but most importantly, he's been able to focus on his filly in one of the most important starts of his training career.

"It's a little break," Baltas said. "I mean, I'm on the phone entering horses (at Santa Anita), but I'm spending a lot of time with my horse. I'm glad I came early to watch her train."