San Vicente a 'Schooling Race' for Coliseum

As has come to be expected for any number of talented colts trained by Bob Baffert, the hype meter was turned up ahead of the Jan. 5 Sham Stakes (G3).

Godolphin's Coliseum, a Tapit  colt, won his seven-furlong debut at Del Mar so impressively in November, the next shoe to drop was almost inevitable—odds-on favoritism in a stakes race.

But unlike many from the Baffert barn who get the "freak" tag early, Coliseum came up flat in the one-mile Sham at odds of 3-5. He broke last, was rank and wide in the first turn, pulled his way to midpack in the backstretch, was never much of a threat, and finished sixth.

Now Coliseum will cut back to seven furlongs for the $200,000 San Vicente Stakes (G2) Feb. 10 at Santa Anita Park, but he needs to show something for his trainer to take the next step.

"I think this is going to be more of a wait-and-watch thing. We'll school him a little bit," Baffert said of the colt who hasn't been the most manageable runner in both training and racing. "This is his schooling race, because after this, he's going to need to have his big-boy pants on. It's going to be tough."

Jockey Mike Smith, Baffert's go-to rider in recent years for his top equine talents, will be aboard Coliseum for the first time in the San Vicente and will be tasked with getting the gray to calm down in the early running.

"Seven furlongs and then we'll stretch him out," Baffert said of Coliseum's potential path on the Triple Crown trail. "I want a positive race, and I want to see if Mike can get him to shut it down. He needs to learn how to settle. If he broke like a shot, then we could just send him.

"But he's a very talented horse. Just raw, raw talent. We're just trying to harness that talent in a positive way. The last race was not a positive race. You wouldn't want a race like that again."

Baffert's second entry in the five-horse San Vicente is Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum's Dessman, a 7 1/2-length debut winner going six furlongs at Santa Anita Jan. 19. Baffert said that win from the Florida-bred Union Rags  colt surprised and encouraged him.

"He wasn't ready to win first out and he did. He's a very talented horse, and we took our time with him," the trainer said. "He's a Union Rags, and I think Union Rags (offspring) really get better with age, so I went really slow with him, and he ran pretty good.

"He'll be very competitive, and if Coliseum collapses ..."

The rest of the short field has significantly more seasoning—all have seven starts or more—but less apparent potential for star power.

The most accomplished in the trio of challengers to the Baffert-trained favorites is Del Secco DCS Racing's Sparky Ville. A move to the turf didn't go so well in the Dec. 28 Eddie Logan Stakes, where he finished sixth last time out, but sprinting on dirt in California has been lucrative for the Candy Ride  gelding trained by Jeff Bonde.

Sparky Ville has placed in two graded events already—a second in the Aug. 11 Best Pal Stakes (G2) and a third in the Nov. 17 Bob Hope Stakes (G3)—and in his last start on the Santa Anita main track, he won the Oct. 21 Sunny Slope Stakes over fellow San Vicente entrant Savagery. Savagery, who sped to a 3 1/2-length allowance win last time out Jan. 12 at Santa Anita, turned the tables in their second meeting and edged Sparky Ville for second by a head in the Bob Hope.

Rounding out the field is Big Chief Racing, Madaket Stables, Rocker O Ranch, and trainer Keith Desormeaux's Synthesis, who has won or placed in his past three starts (at three different racetracks) and finished third to Savagery in the Jan. 12 allowance.

Also on the Sunday card at Santa Anita is the $100,000 Sweet Life Stakes (G3T), a new grade 3 turf sprint on the Santa Anita stakes schedule for 2019.

KMN Racing's homebred Apache Princess will seek her third straight sprint victory down the Santa Anita hillside turf course, following her 1 1/2-length maiden-breaking score Dec. 30 and a 3 1/2-length first-level allowance victory Jan. 21. A 3-year-old, California-bred daughter of Unusual Heat, Apache Princess is trained by Desormeaux.

Entries: San Vicente S. (G2)

Santa Anita Park, Sunday, February 10, 2019, Race 8

• Grade II
• 7f
• Dirt
• $200,000
• 3 yo
• 4:10 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Synthesis (KY)	Kent J. Desormeaux	120	J. Keith Desormeaux	6/1
2	2Coliseum (KY)	Mike E. Smith	120	Bob Baffert	6/5
3	3Dessman (FL)	Flavien Prat	120	Bob Baffert	5/2
4	4Sparky Ville (KY)	Joel Rosario	120	Jeff Bonde	4/1
5	5Savagery (KY)	Heriberto Figueroa	120	Peter Miller	4/1