Los Alamitos Derby fits Bob Baffert best again

Wynstock and jockey Kyle Frey, right, outleg Cornell (Edwin Maldonado), left, to win the $100,000 Los Alamitos Derby, Saturday, June 29, 2024 at Los Alamitos Race Course, Cypress CA. (Courtesy of Benoit Photo)

CYPRESS — Bob Baffert spent the afternoon telling old stories about his early days in quarter-horse racing at Los Alamitos Race Course.

Then he went out and made new history at the Orange County track’s early-summer thoroughbred meet.

Baffert saddled Wynstock and Cornell for a tight 1-2 finish in the $100,000 Los Alamitos Derby, making it eight years in a row that he has won the facility’s marquee race for 3-year-olds and the third time in the past five years that he has swept the exacta.

Wynstock and jockey Kyle Frey beat Cornell and Edwin Maldonado by a nose in a slow 1:50.51 for 1 1/8 miles. It was five lengths back to Curlin’s Kaos and Mario Gutierrez, who edged 7-10 favorite and frontrunner Tapalo and Hector Berrios for third.

Making it special this time, Baffert said, was winning it for the first time for Dr. Ed Allred, the Los Alamitos boss who owns Wynstock with Jack Liebau.

“Hanging out with Doc earlier (before the Derby), we just talked about the old times. It’s nice to come here and be able to win this race, especially for Doc.,” Baffert said of Allred, who was in the winner’s circle, using a cane at age 88.

“I worked for him when I was out of high school. I wanted to be a jockey. He let me gallop horses for him. I won a few races for him. I have great memories of this place. (Allred has) been great to me.”

Since using his success as a quarter-horse trainer as a springboard to glory as a thoroughbred trainer, Baffert has sent out 14 winners in this race, five when it was run as the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park and now nine in the Los Alamitos Derby.

Wynstock (who paid $10.80) became the second horse, joining Shared Belief (in 2013-14), to win both the Los Alamitos Futurity and the Los Al Derby, and the third the third if you count Baffert-trained Captain Steve (in 1999-2000) winning the Hollywood Futurity and the Swaps.

This was not one of Baffert’s more likely Los Al Derby victories. Baffert himself thought Wynstock needed the early lead and gave up on that horse as he dropped back from second to fourth on the turn for home and Cornell ate into Tapalo’s once-huge lead in the homestretch. The trainer initially didn’t know who it was chasing Cornell to the wire.

“I see this horse flying. I go, ‘Son of a gun!’ Then I (realize), ‘Oh, that’s my horse. He came back!’ ” Baffert said of Wynstock.