Awesome Baby Wins the 2014 Santa Ysabel Stakes

Awesome Baby Wins the 2014 Santa Ysabel Stakes: The 2014 Grade II Santa Ysabel Stakes is another race on the road to the Kentucky Oaks. The race featured 3 year-old fillies on a dirt track of 1 1/16 miles. After 3 scratches, there were 5 fillies running all trying to grab the win for a $100,000 purse and 50 points towards the Kentucky Oaks. It was Awesome Baby that took home the win on Saturday, March 1, 2014 at Santa Anita Park, with a time of 1:41.58, making it the second graded stakes win for Awesome Baby in a row.

Awesome Baby was ridden by jockey Mike Smith in the 2014 Santa Ysabel Stakes and is owned by Kaleem Shah. Awesome Baby beat out second place winner Artemis by 2 ¾ lengths, with Swiss Lake Yodeler coming in third place.

Awesome Baby is trained by Bob Baffert who reported that Awesome Baby has been, “working really well and we’ve been pointing her for this race…I was a little bit worried about the off track, but she was very professional today and we were hoping she would run this well. Mike did a great job of keeping her on the lead.”

Awesome Baby started the race as the 2-1 second choice. Jockey Mike Smith said that the plan for Awesome Baby during this race was, “to break and get a clear lead so we could give her a chance to take a breather. We weren’t sure that she would go long; she didn’t at 2.”

Well it seems that their plan was effective since Awesome Baby came out as the clear winner. This win means that Awesome Baby has now won three out of five starts and has earned a total of $230,250. This win sets Awesome Baby up for 50 points towards a possible start in the grade 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.

Santa Ysabel Stakes 2014 Results and Payouts
Awesome Baby, $6.20 to Win, $3.60 to Place, $2.80 to Show
Artemis, $3.60 to Place, $2.80 to Show
Swiss Lake Yodeler, $2.40 to Show
Scratched: Anniversary Kitty, Sweet Bliss, and Tiz Kissable.

Santa Ysabel Stakes 2014 Replay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBqCt1bmNgk