Saturday’s Grade 1 $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita got a new race favorite at the last minute when trainer Bob Baffert decided to run Hoppertunity off of a four month layoff. Hoppertunity hasn’t raced since a third place finish in the March Dubai World Cup, four lengths behind race winner California Chrome.
Hoppertunity returned to training not long after his Dubai World Cup run but he didn’t look impressive at all. Baffert said that for weeks he didn’t look like he was ready to return to competitive racing. Over the past week or so, Baffert has started to see improvement and after a six-furlong workout in 1:12.20 at Santa Anita last Saturday he decided to give Hopportunity the start in the Gold Cup: “He’s never been a good work horse. For him, he worked very well. I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll run him.’” Hoppertunity finished second in the 2015 Gold Cup and will very likely be the favorite in a field of eight horses three years old and up going 1 1/4 miles.
Hoppertunity is a four time stakes winner, most recently in February’s Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita. Overall, he’s won 5 of 19 starts and earned $2,872,675 in his career. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Hoppertunity has been his consistency–he’s finished ‘out of the money’ only four times in his career. Since earning his first stakes win at the Rebel Stakes in March 2014 he’s been even better, finishing lower than third just twice (both were fourth place finishes).
The primary concern in the Santa Anita Gold Cup is Hoppertunity’s ability to handle the layoff and subsequent comeback in a Grade 1 race. Baffert thinks he’ll be OK despite the lack of preparation: “I don’t have him as cranked up as I’d like to have him, but I’m counting on his class. He has a big set of lungs, and he’ll come running.”
Hall of Famer Mike Smith will ride Hopportunity in the Gold Cup. Flavien Prat was the jockey for Hopportunity in the Dubai World Cup but has a prior commitment this weekend. Smith has raced Hopportunity six times, including a second place finish in the 2014 Santa Anita Derby.