Photo:

Alex Evers / Eclipse Sportswire

Del Mar, Calif.

There are still six months until Kentucky Derby 2025. Some 183 mornings that something can go haywire with a horse. But the way the qualifying works for the biggest race in America, the biggest face in the sport has a horse who should take him back there for the first time in four years.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert may have gotten the points he needed to make his return when Citizen Bull (15-1) found the lead early, taking advantage of a poor start by post-time favorite East Avenue (9-5). The 2-year-old Into Mischief colt led his stablemate Gaming (6-1) on what looked like a carousel en route to a gate-to-wire triumph Friday in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar.

It is not a firm mathematical clinch, but with the 30-15-9-6-3 points that go to the top five finishers, Citizen Bull already may have earned his place in the gate at Churchill Downs on May 3.

“It means we don’t have to discuss that situation. That’s what it means,” Baffert said after his sixth Juvenile win and his second exacta.

With Citizen Bull, Gaming and fourth-place Getaway Car (28-1) missing show money by just a head, the six-time Derby winner looks like he has the horses to make his comeback next spring after being banned by Churchill Downs Inc. The company lifted his suspension in July, a little more than three years after Medina Spirit failed a drug test that cost him his 2021 win.

Baffert had his 10-foot pole ready to fend off any talk of running for the roses.

“Right now it’s too far out,” he said. “You really don’t know if you have a Derby horse until about January, February, and things can happen. I don’t get too far ahead of myself. I just focus on what’s in front of me this week or next week. It’s good to be in the conversation, but it’s still a long ways off.”

The entire complexion of Friday’s race changed at the start. East Avenue, who won his debut and then the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity by leading the whole way, went to his knees coming out of the 1 hole. He conceded about three lengths before jockey Tyler Gaffalione could get him going.

“We were beat as soon as we left the gate,” his trainer Brendan Walsh said after the ninth-place disappointment. “Just unfortunate. (Gaffalione) said he just went to break so fast that it just gave out from underneath of him.”

At the same time, Citizen Bull emerged just fine from post 6, bolting to the lead under Martín García. It was the same strategy he used to lead the entire way last month in winning the American Pharoah (G1) at Santa Anita. Just like the Juvenile, it was a two-turn race covering 1 1/16 miles on a fast track.

“That was the plan,” he said. “The last time when I went going this distance, he was on the lead, and today that was in the instructions.”

Citizen Bull carried García through fractions of 23.44, 47.89, 1:12.21 and 1:36.53 on the way to a winning time of 1:43.07 in the 65-degree sunshine. He returned $33.80, $13.20 and $9.40. Between the start and finish, Gaming and his rider Irad Ortiz Jr. stayed mostly 1 1/2 lengths behind, and that was exactly where he finished in second to pay $7.40 and $6.00. Ireland-based Hill Road (61-1), making his first start in the U.S., charged from last in the field of 10 to finish third and return $20.80.

Behind fourth-place Getaway Car, Ferocious (9-1) closed to fifth. Chancer McPatrick (2-1), the second choice who brought a 3-for-3 record into his first two-turn race, never fired and finished sixth. Jonathan’s Way (5-1), Ecoro Azel (116-1), East Avenue and Shin Believe (36-1) came in seventh through 10th in that order.

Although Baffert was not eager yet to think about the rites of spring in Kentucky, he still had his mind on the fall classic. A big fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he said García played the same sort of role that the newly minted World Series champions employed with their relief pitchers throwing bullpen games. That was after Mike Smith was unavailable for the colt’s winning debut but did ride to a third-place finish in the Del Mar Futurity (G1).

“I needed a rider,” Baffert said. “Mike Smith couldn’t ride him the first time, and then he rode him, and then all of a sudden there was a mix-up with the agent. Mike was going to ride him in the American Pharoah, but he had to go to Keeneland that day, so I brought Martín back in. That’s how he picked up the mount.”

Baffert then has an embarrassment of riches with horses and jockeys and even owners. Tom Ryan runs SF Racing, which leads the partners in Citizen Bull and Getaway Car. Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman own Gaming. They all have been fiercely loyal to Baffert, refusing to give up on him during the Churchill Downs suspension.

“Tom Ryan and these guys, they supported me,” Baffert said with Ryan and Madaket Stables partner Sol Kumin alongside during Friday’s post-race news conference. “They’ve been with me all the way, and they have trust in me.”

Baffert also scored the Juvenile exacta in 2002 at Arlington Park, his first time winning the race. Vindication won, Kafwain finished second, and their stablemate Bull Market was fourth.