Journalism Wins Tough, 14-1 Baeza Places In Thriller

Journalism, the reigning hot rod of the Class of 2o25 and a likely Kentucky Derby favorite, overcame considerable trouble mid-race to take what most players had thought was his due, the hundred-point victory in the Santa Anita Derby on April 5. It had also been thought that the short five-horse field would not provide much trouble in the way of traffic. But, much like Journalism’s textbook demonstration of tactical speed and his burnished professional rally to the wire, the fact that traffic became such a powerful factor in the five-horse race came somewhat unexpectedly.

That the 14-1 Baeza, and not Citizen Bull, who ran fourth, would be the man Journalism had to beat in the last furlong was arguably the race’s bigger surprise, and that surprise was pleasurable for those clubby few who had backed or boxed him. Going off at 40-1, Westwood, who had led for much of the way, brought those players an even bigger payout in show. The payouts on the nose were: $4.00; $6.20, and $5.20. The exacta paid $24.40 on a $2 bet; but, saving the best for last, Westwood shouldered the trifecta into the stratosphere, at $213.80.

The two Bob Baffert entries, Citizen Bull and Barnes, were fourth and fifth, respectively, and that was perhaps a surprise to Baffert, whose stronger horse, Citizen Bull, was thought to have a far better day in store for him than running next-to-last. Those thinking that included his trainer, who cited the track’s depth — in other words, its ability to tire runners — and Citizen Bull’s lack of fitness after a rather capacious layoff as the foundations of the lackluster run. Baffert said: “Turning for home, he was blowing pretty good. He looked a little heavy. He needed the race pretty bad. I don’t think it’s the distance—he just got tired. There’s nothing like a race. We’re not raising the white flag yet.”

Put another way, Baffert is saying that Citizen Bull has the physical goods to make it at the common American flat-racing distance of a mile-and-a-quarter. And he’s also saying that it was his duel with Westwood, over the (for him) new distance on this deep track after the layoff, that rendered him fourth. Bottom line: good runner, but out of shape.

For his part, winning trainer Michael McCarthy saw the educational side the traffic tangle Journalism got into at the three-eighths pole and then beat. Noting the “spot of trouble,” the trainer said, “Obviously, in a five-horse field like this was today, if he can’t do it against five, he’s going to have an awfully hard time doing it against twenty. The horse did everything we could have asked of him.”

By “twenty” McCarthy meant the general, and traditionally quite intense, melee that comes as part and parcel of running against a maximum number of combatants in the Kentucky Derby. It’s a scale of racing chaos that no three-year-old coming into the race has previously experienced. Ever. McCarthy’s sage point is that Journalism got a taste of it at Santa Anita and came through it well.

The man on top of the horse who knew intimately what they had just gone through, Jockey Umberto Rispoli, was more frank in his admiration of the mental toughness Journalism had just shown the Santa Anita crowd. He said, “It’s rare for a horse to get held up at the three-eighths pole and to get back in the race in that way. It’s always difficult, especially for such a big horse. But he has such an amazing style and is just an amazing horse.”

Going into the race, Journalism had 47.5 Derby points. According to Churchill Downs protocol, having drawn its small five-horse field, this running of the Santa Anita only offered the runners 75% of the points of the other big prep races, which meant that Journalism earned 75 points, not 100, for the win.

Nevertheless, with a total of 122.5 points now, the gritty Santa Anita winner is well-assured of a stall in the Churchill gate and has nothing left to do except remain fit until May 3. Although the Kentucky Derby field is far from actual selection, Journalism has been crowned as the May 3 favorite in Louisville, according to quantities of heavy track chatter and the early readings of the jet streams of players’ like and dislike battering the onrushing storms of money this way and that in the Derby odds weather system.

Hot ticket, yes — favorite, maybe, not that that designation will actually help him face the slavering horde of brethren gladiators in the Louisville gate.

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