Citizen Bull took advantage of a stumbling start by 9-5 favorite East Avenue, sprinting to a short lead at the break, and the once-beaten colt made all the pace to give Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert a record sixth win in Friday’s $1,840,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Del Mar.
Overlooked at 15.90-1, Citizen Bull controlled the action through opening fractions in :23.44, :47.89, and 1:12.21 with jockey Martin Garcia. His stablemate, Del Mar Futurity (G1) winner and 6-1 fourth choice Gaming, tracked in second before offering a bid approaching the stretch, but Citizen Bull had more in reserve and edged away with a furlong remaining, scoring by 1 1/2 lengths.
“My horse was just running easy early and the other horse (Gaming) was just cruising in second,” Garcia said. “And, when it was time to go, the horse just took off.”
Citizen Bull stopped the teletimer in 1:43.07, more than a second faster than Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) winner Immersive two races earlier, and he’s campaigned by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Dianne Bashor, Determined Stables, Robert E. Masterson, Tom J. Ryan, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan.
“I told all my riders, your plan is to win the race,” said Baffert, who had three of the 10 starters. “So, they rode their horses the way they thought, Getaway Car, he has speed. We know Citizen Bull is very quick, very fast. Gaming, I don’t think he got away as good as he could have. I was surprised to see him laying second. And I figured they weren’t going too fast because Gaming, he was wanting to go.
“But they went fractions that they’re supposed to run. It’s not like in the filly, Juvenile Fillies, when I saw :22 flat, if I would have had a radio, I would have called (Flavien) Prat (on the Baffert-trained Nooni, who was setting the pace), you might want to slow down a little bit.”
Citizen Bull was exiting a gate-to-wire victory in the Oct. 5 American Pharoah (G1) at Santa Anita. A first-out maiden winner at Del Mar in mid-August, the bay son of Into Mischief sustained his only defeat when recording a third from off the pace in the Del Mar Futurity.
“In order to win these races, you need a good horse,” Baffert said. “And you have to have the right trip, the right luck.”
Citizen Bull locked up a seventh champion two-year-old male Eclipse Award for Baffert, a six-time Kentucky Derby (G1) winner, and picked up 30 points winning the Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifier. The second- through fifth-placers received points on a 15-9-6-3 scale.
Gaming easily held second, 3 1/4 lengths better than 61-1 outsider Hill Road, who edged the third and final Baffert trainee, American Pharoah runner-up Getaway Car, by a neck for show. Ferocious came next in fifth and was followed by Chancer McPatrick, who never launched a serious challenge from off the pace as the 2.20-1 second choice; Jonathan’s Way; and Ecoro Azel.
East Avenue, who was expected to show the way from the rail following a convincing frontrunning win in the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at Keeneland, nearly fell when his feet went out from under him at the break and raced near the back of the field the entire way and finished ninth. Shin Believe completed the order.
Bred in Kentucky by Robert and Lawana Low, Citizen Bull sold for $675,000 as a yearling at the 2023 Keeneland September sale. He’s the first stakes winner out of the unraced Distorted Humor mare No Joke, a half-sister to multiple Grade 1-winning juvenile filly Moonshine Memories, and this is the immediate female family of 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick.
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