The first time Bob Baffert saw Plum Pretty he turned to owner John Fort and asked him if he got the name right.
“Did you say her name was Plum Pretty or plum ugly?” Baffert said with a laugh.
The way the trainer’s blossoming star ran in Friday’s $1 million Kentucky Oaks, perhaps Plum Perfect would have been just as appropriate.
The filly and jockey Martin Garcia got Baffert’s big weekend off to a rollicking start, taking charge at the top of the stretch then holding off St. John’s River by a neck to give the Hall of Famer his second victory in the female version of the Kentucky Derby.
Baffert won the Oaks in 1999 with Silverbulletday but came up short in the Run for the Roses the next day when each of his three entries.
No trainer has won both the Oaks and the Derby in the same year since Ben Jones did it in 1952. Baffert will saddle Midnight Interlude in the Run for the Roses on Saturday as he goes for his fourth Derby triumph.
Not that Baffert was focusing on the Derby – at least for a few moments – after grabbing the lilies that go to the Oaks winner.
“It’s been a long time between these with Silverbulletday and you have to really enjoy these moments, you never know when you’re going to be able to enjoy them,” Baffert said.
Plum Pretty stalked early leader Summer Soiree before Garcia moved her to the front as the 13-horse field turned for home. She surged to the lead and needed every bit of it to turn away a late bid from St. John’s River.
Plum Pretty came in off a dominating 25-length victory in the Sunland Park Oaks on March 27, a win so emphatic Baffert joked she was posing for pictures by the time the rest of the field was finishing.
The Kentucky Oaks presented a considerable step up in class, but the bay filly looked right at home in front of a crowd of 110,000, the third-largest in Oaks history.
Jockey Rosie Napravnik nearly became the first female rider to win the Oaks following an expert ride aboard St. John’s River, sending her mount to the rail to save ground after a rocky start before the two roared into contention in the deep stretch.
“Down the lane … I’m thinking Girl Power in the Oaks,” Napravnik said.
“It was such a disappointing loss but you can’t take anything away from the filly. She ran so well.”
AP AAP TURF
